V0L2.N0.10 Local Men Join Search ji ; For Missing Parachutist! -at The search continues for Laura Jane Watson, who disap peared in the waters of the Nolichucky River in Tennessee following a parachute jump on „ Trout Season Opens Soon The traditional opening of the mountain trout season in North Carolina has been moved one day forward from Sunday, April 1, 1973, to Saturday, March 31, by the North Caro lina Wildlife Resources Com mission. The action came af ter complaints were received that opening the season on Sun day would cause some sports - men to miss the traditional opening day festivities. Some also complained that the Sun day opening left only one day of fishing in the weekend. "Opening day of the trout season is an important observ ance to some 70,000 trout fish ermen, and we certainly had no intention of creatingprob - lems for anyone, " said a Com mission spokesman. ’We’re happy to be able to make the change." The Wildlife Commission, in a regular monthly meeting in Raleigh February 23, also approved the 1973 trout stock ing plan and set boating safety regulations for several localitie& Under the stocking plan, trout will be stocked in some 1, 600 miles of designated pub lic mountain trout waters where bait fishing is permitted. A series of nine public hearings were slated across the state to present proposed chan ges for the 1973-74 hunting regulations. The proposed changes will be publicized in late March, and sportsmen are urged to attend the meetings to hear the proposals and present their suggestions and opinions. The public hearings are slated as follows: 7:30 p. m. on all dates and places stated below. April 9, Edenton, Courthouse; April 10, New Bern, Cjty Hall; April 11, Rocky Mount, City Court Room; April 12, Elizabethton, Courthouse; April 13, Graham, Courthouse; April 16, Albemarle, Courttouse; April 17, Yadkinville,Courthse; April 18, Morganton, Western Piedmont Com. College; April 19, Sylva, Courthouse. BBS Warns Os Fraud A spokesman for the Better Business Bureau has warned local citizens to beware of a fraudulent termite control out fit which has been working in this area. There has been at least one Yancey home visited and the Better Business Bureau should be consulted with the company's credentials before a termite control man is en gaged to work in,your home. THE YANCEY JOURNAL February 5. Last Sunday, ten men from Yancey County join ed the search efforts. The twenty-year-old daugh ter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wat son of Spruce Pine was making her first jump as a member of the East Tennessee State Uni - versity Parachute Jump Club _ when she landed in the river 300 yards from her intended target. It was at first thought that Miss Watson was in no trouble, although she had missed her target ans was standing in waist deep water. Other club mem bers and witnesses reported that her parachute filled with water and she was swept over some rapids. Since that time, repeated searches by boat, ground and air have been made along the river but these efforts have been fruitless. The search is being con centrated from the spot, 5 where Miss Wafson landed along se veral miles of river to a dam where the Nolichucky ends. The Nolichucky River is parti cularly rough and muddy at this time of year, contributing to the difficulty of the search. Child Care Survey Set Mr. Charlie Hensley, Draw er 218, Burnsville, has been named Yancey County chair - man for a statewide survey of child-care facilities. The survey is being conduc ed by the Learning Institute of North Carolina with the assis - tance of volunteers across the state. Dr. Richard S, Ray, exe - cutive director of "LENC", sajd the survey "reflects a growing concern in our state about care for preschool children. We know that the preschool years are among the most important in terms of personal and intellec - tual growth. " Conducted on a county-by county basis by volunteers re cruited by county chairmen, the survey will cover nurseries, kindergartens, day- care c en ters, and Head Start programs, as well as individuals running small day-care or babysitting operations in their homes. Questions will cover present and maximum enrollment, oper ating costs, enrollment policies educational and health require ments for staff members, parent involvement, and use of servi ces provided by public agencies. Information gathered will remqln confidential, and indi - vidual child- care facilities will not be identified in the final report. Ray said the LINC stu dy is the first of its kind in the nation, and will provide valua ble information on a statewide basis for those who want to ex pand and improve child - care services. The local survey will begin in mid March, Ray said, and will be completed by April 1. A final report on the statewide survey will be published in May. RHHn oflsrilihiHOlHH I ■ Search Crew Inspects Wreckage Os Cessna Skyhawk After Crash Claimed Three Lives FFA Continues Investigation To Find Cause Os Plane Crash In Lost Cove Investigations are still th*- derway to determine the cause of a plane crash Tuesday night, February 27 which killed three Kingsport, Tenn. residents. The Mountain Wilderness Civil Air Patrol Squadron was into action at 9:00 p. m. by Sheriff Kermit Banks, fol lowing a phone call he receiv ed from Grant Ward, the only resident of the rugged, almost inaccessible Lost Cove section of Yancey County. Ward reported that he heard a plane circling over his home at a very low altitude, then heard it crash some distance from his house. Ward then ran three miles to a phone to re port the crash. A search crew of CAP mem bers, the Yancey and Mitchell County Sheriff Departments,and the Yancey County Radio Pat rol entered the isolated Lost Cove section by use of a rail - road vehicle which Sheriff Ihnks Microfilming Will Preserve Valuable Records As Phase II Os Local Records Program Proceeds A representative of the Office of Archives and History has returned to Yancey County to begin microfilming perman ently valuable public records created since the last micro - filming visit to the county. This phase of the local records prog ram is a continuing one. The initial phase of the pro gram consisted of inventorying the public records in the various county offices and of repairing as necessary and microfilming for security those records classi fied as permanently valuable. . This phase of the program,\vhich began in 1959, has e n Completed in awJffforth Caro lina's counties. Security microfilm negatives 0 3vtHtvilu *76e li&Kceu Record THURSDAY, MARCH 8,1973 had requested from the Clinch field Railroad in Erwin, Tenn. The party reached Lost Cove about 11:30 p.m. and after searching along the river and some of the gorge area, were forced to abandon the search un til morning because of a heavy fog that had descended over the treacherous terrain. It was determined that an air search would be the quickest means of locating the wreckage. Ground search crews entered the Cove at daylight so the search ing aircraft could lead them to the site once the wreckage was spotted. Civil Air Patrol planes were in the air by 7:15 am. but heavy fog kept them exit of the Lost Cove area until 9:00 a. m. At approximately 9:30 a. m. a CAP aircraft piloted by Ist Lt. Ray Miller and CWO Kenneth Laughrun spotted the wreckage. It was approximately 2:00 p. m. before the ground crews made of permanently valuable reccrds of all counties have been stored in the underground vault in the Archives and History- State Lib rary Building in Raleigh. In the event of loss of original records, copies can be made and supplied at nominal cost. Many of the counties have suffered serious losses of records as a result of fire and other causes. For years, the late Dr. Christopher Crittenden, former Director of the State Pepartmait of Archives and History ( now Office of Archives and History) and Dr. H.G. Jones, State Ar chivist, then Director, and now State Historian and Administra- considered possible methods their way through the rough, wooded area to the crash site. Upon reaching the wreckage the ground crew had to use axes to cut away part of the fuselage to gain access to the section of the single engine Cessna 172 Skyhawk where the three bodies were located. The crash victims were car ried almost a mile to a jeep, then were taken across the river by boat to an accessible road on the Mitchell County side of the river. From there the bod ies were transported toHolcorrte Brothers Funeral Home in Burns ville. The three were later iden tified as Michael Edward Keeter, 27, the pilot; James Edward Blakely, 25; and Anna Lou Phillips, 20, all of Kings port, Tennessee. According to Banks, the plane which crashed into Lost Cove belonged to an Elizabeth ton, Tenn. Flying Club. It of providing security for essen tial records in the counties. They eventually devised the plan of microfilming the re - cords for security. State and county officials endorsed the idea and the 1959 General As sembly enacted legislation which authorized and directed the department to proceed with the program. The work is un der the supervision of Frank D. Gatton, Chief, Local Records Section. The department extends an invitation to the churches in the county and surrounding areas to take advantage of this oppor tunity to provide security for their records by bringing them to file courthouse for microfilm- had departed Dublin, Georgia at 4:30 p. m. Tuesday for the Tri-Cities Airport in East Tenn essee, where it was due to ar rive at 8:00 p. m. In a communication with Tri-Cities Airport, the pilot reported problems with ice forming on the aircraft, but did not indicate an emergency sit uation. According to an air - part spokesman, the pilot's last communication indicated that he was descending, flying Visu al Flight Conditions, and pro ceeding to Tri-Cities Airpot. A Federal Aviation Admin istration spokesman said the cause of the crash has not been determined and that the inves tigation will probably take sev eral weeks. The FAA, which is in charge of the investiga - tion, ordered autopsy examina tions of the three bodies to de termine whether drugs,alcohol or other factors might have been involved in the crash. ing. Minutes, registers, and other records of permanent va lue will be microfilmed and the film will be stored in the State Archives. This service is pro vided without cost to the chur c hes involved. As in the case of county records, copies of church records can be provided at small cost in the event