Newspapers / The Waynesville Mountaineer (Waynesville, … / Sept. 16, 1954, edition 1 / Page 13
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? THE WAYNESVILLE MOUNTAINEER z~=sr jblters Hydroelettrit Plant On Pigeon River Serves Large WNC Area llFTTEK BE FRIENDS when you are each otliei's only ft. Mrs. Joe Teague and Mrs. Winfield M. '?.Mack" Broun Bin- only two households on the remote mountainside above ?ham. WATER OVER THE l)A.M is a spectacular sight at the Walters Dam of Carolina Power & Eight Company. The dam is nearly 200 feet high and 900 feet Ions. MF.N MUST BE SELF-RELIANT when a lake and 40 miles of rugged driving separate them from the nearest outpost of "eivilizalion". Har rison Hunter, lelt, rumen to lend a hand to "Mark" Brown and Joe fragile. Teague is Hal tors <1 am keeper antl Brown his assistant Hunter is Teague's brother-in-law. Clinging to the slope in the baekground are the Teague and Brown eottiigeft. I Pigeon River Road Near Modern Plant Ihm the granite heart | rioky an inky torrent i through* a night el ? and somewhere - a housewife flips a' Ming to life a welcom- | ?rground river raees six I Waterville, where the rinielectric Plant of the ! )wer & Light Company I energy into electricity. 1 nng wires carry this 1 power through the breadth of Haywood d to its Western Caro- ; bin's and to Eastern j Tennessee and South ( 1 Only seven years ago, on Sep-1 tember 9, 1947, the plant was for mally named in honor of Charles Sylvanus Walters, vice president ' of CP & L and manager of its j Western Division, but the plant itself and the gisfnt dam, 180 feet; high and 870 feet long, were com-1 pleted in 1930 after three years of blasting and building. In Haywood County alone, Caro lina Power & Light serves 9,000 customers directly. In addition, it j sells power at wholesale to the i i Town of Waynesyille and to the! Haywood Electric Membership! Corporation, who have, respect ively. 2.000 and 2,250 customers. ( To handle these and its other cus- I tomers. To handle these and its | other customers last year, the plant produced 272 million kilowatt hours of electricity. tTo use that much power more than 30,000 sturdy-muscled housewives would have to ply their 1000-watt elec tric irons day and night for a whole year.) Haywood County re quires enough line?700 miles of ' it?to stretch from here well into Florida. New Itoad To Pass Plant The plant and the dam lie in one if the most inaccessible parts of Haywood county, though the pro jected Pigedn River Road will run past the plant. Now it is neces I sary to take N. C. 284 through the j Jonathan Creek section, up the | precipitous road to Cove Creek, ' past Mt. sterling, to the tiny town of VVaterville, and the power plant. VVaterville boys and girls of high school age go to school in Tennessee instead of in North Carolina, because Haywood Coun ty saves money by paying out-of state tuition instead of providing transportation to the nearest coun I ty high school. The dam is even harder to reach, a 40-miJe drive zigzagging up stream from the plant. A road of * sorts was bulldozed in 1945, hang ing precariously on the side of the mountain. Before it was built, Joe Teague, the Walters dam keeper. started his "trip to.town" in a molorboat to cross the lake behind the dam. Then he climbed a mountain. Finally he arrived on a county road and was ready to start on his trip. Teague and his assistant. Win field M. (.Vlacki Brown, live in the mountainside some 800 feet above the lake. Occasionally Teagues brother-in-law, Harrison Hunter, takes a hand when there is extra work to be done. Teague has work ed at the dam the entire 27 years | of its existence, having helped ? build the tunnel. Mrs. Teague and Mrs Brown | find plenty to occupy them ? keeping house "back of beyond" presents problems not dreamed of by the average homemaker. One thing they do have in plenty, how ever. is electricity. The company has run in lines to make sure that its employees have all the conven iences that electric power can bring. .. . Water Forced Out of Channel does water flow over the dam. In [ normal times the entire flood of i the Pigeon River is diverted, through the tunnel, to pour out six , miles beyond and 861 feet lower | through the three turbines of the | | Walters plant. Below the plant the ! I water returns to the normal chan I nel of the river. The tunnel is as big as a good sized room and with its 14-foot di ameter, considerably higher. It was blasted through the solid rock and then lined with concrete a foot thick. Engineers started the con struction from both ends at once, and being engineers, were not at all surprised when the two bores met with barely a half inch dif ference. Somewhere within its darkness the water tumbles straight down for a distance of 600 feet The Walters plant, where the rushing water is harnessed to gen erate electricity, is Carolina Pow er and Light's largest hydroelectric generating system, and one of the largest of any such systems in the Southeast. The 861-foot difference in elevation between the top of the dam and the water below the plant gave the plant the highest "head" of any east of the Rockies until wartime construction of two smaller plants with higher heads. Canton Main Dispatching Station Four transmission lines carry the power from this plant lor dis tribution! Two lines go io the Can toil substation, which is the dis patching station for the entire Western Division. It sends power to the Hazelwoid, Asheville, Spruce Pine and Black Mountain stations, as well as to Greenville, S. C., and the Duke Power Com pany. As would be expected, the plant I j and dam represent a considerable , investment. The plant, which hes in Cataloochee Township, paid j taxes this year of more than $48,000; the dam. upstream in Fines Creek, paid another $4J,000, making tlie CP 8c I. the county's largest taxpayer. Including 'l eague and Brown, j more than two dozen men arc ! needed to operate the plant. A mong them ate operators, oilers, a maintenance crew, a machinist, caretakers, and oddly enough, only one whose official pay roll desig nation is "electrician." Personnel includes K. .1 Pear son. Charles Moore, J. M. Roberts. 1 Holace Sutton. Hiram Leather-J j wood. Jim Ike Gates. Lenn Brown. I Russell Zumstein, 1) H William- j son, Robert llarev. Creed Gates. Leo R. Brown, Clyde Holt, .lack Rcdmon, Joe Tea cue. Winfleld Brown, Lester Tweed. Calvin Cog dill, Charles Ford, Harrison Phil lips. Woodrow Phillips. Boyd Han nah, Garfield Jenkins. Dillard Black and Scott Ball. Welcome Mat Out Plant staff members are hospit able to guests, and arty visitor who makes the rugged trek there is warmly welcomed Not many or- j 1 janUations know lliat they art- iri rileU to use pk'nic facilities at the power station, but the staff has auilt a barbecue pit and grill and a covered shelter lor the use of | their rate guests. (Arrangements' for such an outing should l>r made in advance Hirough the local of fice i A trip to the Walters plant gives the visitor the feeling of living in, two ages at the same time. Around him lie tin- unspoiled forests and rugged terrain as they have lain since before the earliest Indian tracked the earliest hear into their depths I lis goal is the steel and concrete construction of man. who1 has tamed the ancient river to pro-? duee live modern giant of electric power. WANTED Experienced Beauty Operator with Waynesville following pre ferred. C all QL 6-5198 after 6 p.m. How To Kill Athletes Foot Germ Uwlrkly rellevta Itchinkill* funi?i of Athlete's Foot on conu.r!, aula rapid healing of red. raw, cracked km Halpa rimovi soft corns ana cal'us-s. Chocks toot odors and loot p?rspirs*icn. Raliat quaranteed or monay back. Don't wait! Get BLIS-TO-SOL Nt >W rdy. CURTIS DRUG STORE ere's where your I start .. . I 11 P'oduce 30 to 40 dozens of eggs a ? bag of Security Egg Mash ond J EGG y '? '' built to help you produce o PI>1ASKJW " large, Grode A eggs ond to fj a Socd condition. Coreful ingredient ,).i { r extensive research ond precision ! 'ur.ng ore the reasons why Security better job, ewMi AIRY L Approximately 40 gallons of milk con be If! produced from this bog of Security Dairy Ift Feed, fed along with ovoilable roughage. M Lowered feeding cost per gallon of milk fros lyi produced con be yours on o Security Pro gram. There is o specific Security Dairy ^ ^ (|j Feed for ony phase of your cows' life ond bwVNUs) ' *or maximum utilization of your posture nd roughoge. I I i' C'jfLcc i 50 pounds of pork from [(fBtGTi l"i of S'cunty, fed olong with corn. nl IMjA AJ ? : ciccc ingredients ore blended in I ooott.nng feed With the right J A J' r-f viiomini,, mmerois ond corbo F buildmg big fromes, putting [|| l"^s? mum omount of flovorful pO'k /LK'SBffffflVLfc \ ?".m tnr>? ori(j getting proper finish. la P* SCCVJRITY DEALER. 1 " '* I HAYWOOD COUNTY WRMERS CO-OP 11. M. Dulin, Mgr. street fe.mil l>epot Mren 1MB FOR RENT 2 FURNISHED APARTMENTS 201 East Street SI00 Per Month For Roth I LISTINGS WANTED We Have Inquiries For Houses, Lota and I-arms If You Have Real Kstate To Sell Reasonably C'ALI. HARRY LINER REAL ESTATE <5, INSURANCE CO. / <iL 6-4331 TODAY J FOR REAL WESTERN BARBECUE TT'Q thf CHUCK WAGON Sparc Ribs and Chicken Our Specialty Dellwood Hills Court AND New Dining Room ON SOCO HIGHWAY Dial GL 6-6669 WELCOME TO THE 37th ANNUAL CHEROKEE INDIAN FAIR Tues. Thru Sat., Sept. 21-22-23-24-25 PROGRAM OF EVENTS (TENTATIVE) NOTE:?All exhibits will be open for,frw inspection during tlx- hours indicated below. All games, contests, and sport events are free attractions and will be held in the stockade on the fair grounds unless otherwise specified. Entrance (.ate Open at 7:T80 A. II. Daily DAII.V PROGRAM 8:30 A.M. to 11:00 P.M. Agricultural, Women's and Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibits. 10:30 A.M. Archery and Klowgun Contests. 2:00 P.M. Indian Dance. 3:00 I' M. Indian Kail Game. 7:00 I*. M. Indian Dance. 8:00 I'M. Square Dancing and String Hand Contest. SPECiAl. EVENTS WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 22 12:00 Noon. Grandstand. Cherokee Choirs and Quartets. (songs in Cherokee Language). Tllt'KSDAY. SEPTEMBER 23 11 oo A.M. Grandstand. BABY SHOW . FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 2f 12:00 Noon. (.raildstand. Cherokee Choirs and Quartets sing ing in Knglsh. Friday. September 24, will he SCIIOOI. DAY. All children attending school including high school students will he admitted free. Two games of Indian hall will he played, one hv boys from two of the elementary schools of the Reservation, the other by adult teams. Saturday. September 23, has been designated as Children's Day. All children II years of age and younger will he admitted free on this day. There will lie two hall games, one h.v boys and one by adults. ADMISSION RATES For each person over 12 years of age SO.75 Children over live years and under 12 years SO.30 Season tiekets lor persons over 12 years of aje S2.23 Don't Miss The Cherokee Indian Fair "IligRer and Metier Than Ever" Reached by I S 1!) and 441 and NC 107 or 28 ,4, CHEROKEE, N. ( . It
The Waynesville Mountaineer (Waynesville, N.C.)
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Sept. 16, 1954, edition 1
13
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