Moving Deadline Near For Fontana Reservoir Residents 1,200 FAMILIES A HAVE DEPARTED- ? J FOR NEW HOMES AVuter Soon Will Begin Inun 23,800 Acres In Swain And Graham Counties XNOXVILLE, TENN. ? Moving "time is nearing an end for folks in Xfto reservoir area of Fontana Dam, east of the Rocky Moun Uarss, which is nearing completion iti V*e mountains of Western North iina. Also for those in the 44, ?i-*y<"cts in the present program of Tennessee Valley Authority. Ap proximately 10,800 acres will be i 67,800-Acrcs Involved 3L*#nd purchased and to be pur totals approximately 67,800 including 44,000 acres to be ^jr-^Jerred to the National park ser vice. There were 1,319 families in the entire area, of which 599 were what are known as "original families" or long-time residents, while 720 were transient families or those which had settled and sought employment on the project. When the last count was made, 1,200 families had moved ? 517 original and 683 transient. That leaves^! 19 families to be moved. Most of the orginal families were land owners, rather than tenants, and much of their acreage was in wood land. Most of the families will remain in North Carolina with some havina moved toward Asheville or evWrt5e yond. Five Villages Involved Five villages will disappear. Ja pan, Bushnell, Almond and Judson will be under the water level and P.octor will be in the new park area. Nearly all families have been co operative, according to the TVA. The majority back at cabins in coves were eager to move. They wanted to go where they would have ad vantages. Some could get those ad vantages just by moving to better locations within their own county. Few had electricity back in the mountains, but nearly all cabins had battery-operated radios. The world came to their door over the radios. They learned much about what was beyond the blue horizon without traveling. Some mountain homes were above the average. They had v. aterwheels to produce electricity. The Proctor CCC camp had elec tricity from a waterwheel, and both Judson and Almond had electricity. One family had an old-fashioned wheel which was used to grind corn. Even the cogs were made of wood. Arrangements have been made to take the old mill wheel down, piece by piece, and move it to a museum at Fontana village.. Agencies Assist TVA and cooperating agencies help in relocating families and as sistance also is given in readjust ment problems. A helping hand is given by the agricultural extension service, the Farm Security adminis tration, state welfare departments, American Red Cross, and various other federal, state and local agencies. Under the purchase procedure fol lowed by the T. V. A., all families,' except in unusual cases, are permit ted to remove the improvements from the land and buildings. That is an important relocation resource. Materials are being salvaged due to wartime scarcity which nobody would have looked at two or three years ago. In many instances, the old log houses are torn down and used for rebuilding. The wood alone in them is valuable these days. North Carolina's state extension service gives help through the coun ty agent in appraising farms which families plan to purchase. A list of available farms is also on hand in the office of the county agent. TVA has a contract with the North Caro lina State extension service for such assistance. When TVA buys land, it makes ; .payjnent to the owner and plans ; are begun for removal. Often the | time of purchase is- several months ? in advance of the date for moving. Assistance which may be needed in moving or advisory service is given both property owners and tenants. Many Employed "The TVA has been able to use a -considerable number of employable families, which also affords an im ?portant relocation resources," says \V. T. Hunt, principal population readjustment representative, who is ] in charge of the TVA readjustment j program in the Fontana Reservoir, with headquarters at Bryson City. "A total of 901 of 1,200 families have been employed by TVA dur ing the period of working there. That started in January, 1942. | "Many men have worked not only on Fontana Dam, but in reservoir clearance near their homes. A third cf the reservoir clearance personnel came from around that area. They have workecT\pn the relocatiorj^-Qf^ the Southern R^lway line^rolri Bry son City to Wessel^ Some of the women have worked in the cafeteria. "All of the people of that section who worked for us are very good workers," Mr. Hunt said. Mr. Hunt has been in population readjustment work at 11 reservoirs in the TVA system and he had only the highest praise for the North Car olina area, as did J. Ed Campbell, assistant director of the reservoir property management department, Knoxville, who was interviewed too on the work. More residents of the reservoir I have done clearance work than at I any other project. And a higher I number of tenants, have become land owners than at any other. Buy Own Farms Stories could be told of mountain men who have been able to get a small farm of their own by saving from what they earned on the Fon tana project. There was, for in stance, a typical moujntaineer on Tuskeegee Creek, in Graham county.) He was a farm tenant, 39 years old, I married, with six children. ..For -17 years, since marriage, he had lived in a three-room box' house on his father's farm. He went to work on reservoir l clearance and made enough to buy I himself a farm with 15 acres of level | land. He had two children who could carry on work at home while he was at work on the reservoir. He cut enough timber at his new location 10 build himself a house. - j One man in Swain [county owned several hundred acrfcsr scattered around in little patches. At one time he operated a little store in Judson. He had a 'saw mill and cut timber off his tracts. TVA bought all of his property except one tract. He took the money and went over toward Gateway, s There he bought a nice I 75-acre farm, comparatively level, and heavy farm machinery. . He always had an ambition to raise stock. Now he can cultivate crops, raise grain and cattle. He received enough from his four or five tracts of scattered rough land to buy the new farm, . with a sub tarttjal amount of money left to realize his long cherished hope of stocking a farm with purebred stock, including Aberdeen Angus. Not Much Traveled Some of those who lived deep in Lne mountains have. never been far Crom home. ; For instance, there is an old woman who lives back in the Proc- I lor area, two miles up in a cove, where it is impossible to take a :ar. She is rather feeble. Mr. Hunt was talking to one of her sons ^not long ago. "I impressed on him the necessity for getting out of the cove while] the weather is good," said Mr. Hunt. l4He told me that his mother had r.ot been to Proctor in 30 years and hi d never been to Bryson City, about 25 miles away. She had never been in an automobile." j At one place below the water line near the dam, a TV A man had been surprised to see women's clothing in an old abandoned trailer, which I nad formerly been used by a con- 1 ?truction worker's family. He in- 1 quired around and found the answer I at a house on a hillside nearby. The woman explained that she had taken the clothing to the old trailer "to =>tore them" until the household be- I longings could be moved. The trailer I was nearer a road which would be used in moving. School Consolidations Some school consolidations are re sulting. All schools in a bend of the river will be eliminated. There will oe fewer one-teacher schools. School bus service has been a help, Dut many children walk across -Fountains to catch the bus. One pupil has been using a path across i ridge, three miles, to get the school jus at Highway 288. There are many churches, served jy pastors on a circuit." number [ ?f churches have moved to new lo- I jations. Among the families moving are :wo of Indians, who have lived on property belonging to Cherokee In- 1 iian Council. In one community, it was found hat out of 163 families, 58 had lived there all their lives, 2^ more ,han 20 years, 27, 10 to 20 years, | 27, five to 10 years, and 25 up to five years. That indicated a fairly stable native population. It showed that more than 35 per cent of the families have lived in the commun nity all their life and nearly 70 per cent at least 10 years. Many of the families have gone into places where farming condi tions and methods will be somewhat different. It is considered important tkat these families have some fol lowup assistance if they are to make a success of their new relocations. The agricultural extension service of the University of North Carolina is doing along that line. GAY NEWS By Mrs. Roy Beck Mrs. Walter Wilson has received a cablegram from her son, Lester, stat ing that he is now serving in France. Little Mr. Kenneth Ray Buchanan, four year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Perry BiTchanan, is spending a few weeks with his aunt, Mrs. Joe Pyatt, of Oak Ridge, Tenn. S. Sgt. Paul S. Buchanan of Fort Jackson, S. C. is spending a ten-day furlough with his wife and parents of G*y- ? . ? } RITZ THEATRE TO SPONSOR PICTURE OF ARMED FORGES . The Ritz Theatre has signed a con tract with the Progressive Picture titled "We Americans" to be run on tneir screen in the near future. The picutre will be made up of photos of local men and women in the armed forces, who are serving in all branches of ? the army and navy; it was learned from R. C. Allison, manager of the Ritz Theatre. Anyone desiring a member of their family or a friend or sweetheart who is in the service to be in the picture are asked to leave the photograph or snap shot at the box office of the theatre. In leaving the pictures, which are lo be incorporated into a patriotic theme, the name and rank of the per son in service is wanted by Mr. Al lison. The pictures will be sent to the laboratories to be reproduced on film with music and sound and then start ing some time in November the first group of the pictures will be shown c>f the Ritz Theatre, and the'Vrogram will be followed through thereafter until all the pictures have been shown. The pictures are not an advertising medium and there is no commercial connection to the program as far as tne public is concerned, it was point ei out by Mr. Allison. Everyone who has realtives in the .service are asked to submit a photo graph so that when the parade of Jackson county men and women in service is shown on patriotic occas ions in the future years, there will be no one left out, it was explained by Mr. Allison. The photographs will be returned after the picture has been made. Friendly Atmosphere I TASTY FOOD! I If you are busy with war work, suggest to the fam I ily an evening meal at I Stovall's Cafe. You'll enjoy low-priced dinners I in a friendly atmosphere. STOVALL'S CAFE WALLACE SWANN Manager Where Time Doesn't March On... ... unless you step in now to help men in German prison camps fight that deadly " barbed tvire" boredom The clock has a hundred hours on its dial and each hour has 600 minutes when you're penned behind barbed wire. Nothing to see but that wire, the bar rack's wall, and a sentry's back. Nothing to hear but the tramp of his feet, the ibeefs of your comrades. So you go slowly, grimly, and some times not-so-quietly, progressively towards the "barbed wire disease" finless . . . Unless you're lucky enough to have the folks back home get behind the War Prisoners' Aid (one of the 19 participat ing agencies of the National War Fund) and provide the money to provide the things to feed the hunger of your heart and soul and mind. Books and baseballs and tennis rackets. Textbooks and technical equip ment so you can continue studies the war interrupted. Grease paint and play sdripts for your own camp shows. Games of every .sort. Anything and everything it's humanly possible to provide to start iTime marching on again. This is just one of the many vital jobs your contribution helps to take care o? ?when you support the National War Fund by giving to your local Com munity War Fund. Your dollars go to work on six continents and in ninety-one countries ? including your ottm, because this united campaign covers the big home-front needs too. And don't just give a "token" con tribution. The job is too big for that. Give? realty give! Remember that no matter how much any of us gives in money it's still little compared to what the people you'll help have been giving in "blood, sweaty and tears." GIVE GENEROUSLY TO YOUR Community War Fund / REPRESENTING THE National War Fund THIS UNITED WAR FUND) ADVERTISEMENT SPONS ORED BY . . . Kirk - Davis Chevrolet