Second ctass postage patd
at Btack Mountain, NC 28711
Thursday, October 5, 1978, Vol 24
Serving
* Black Mountain
Swannanoa
Montreat
^ Ridgecrest
ToMrresM/fs m p/an
by Dan Ward
A subcommittee appointed
by the joint schooi committees
of the Owen District found
structure probiems to be
worse than expected in a tour
One o/ the ciassrooms being used at Btaca
Mountain Primary. JMany o/ the windows wii! not
dose because o/ warping. fDan Ward)
of Black Mountain Primary
Schooi October 2.
As a resuit of their in
spection, the committee chose
to send a letter to ali parents
in the Owen School District
urging them to attend the
October 19 meeting of the
Buncombe County School
Board in Asheville.
Fred Myers, chairman of
the subcommittee, suggested
that color slides showing
extensive water damage and
unsafe wiring be made and
shown to the board that
evening.
Black Mountain Primary
Principal Jerry Green, former
Principal Leonard Keever,
and custodian Leonard Worley
took the subcommittee for a
tour, pointing out places
where moisture caused by
improper roof drainage had
caused three-month-old paint
to peel off the walla, and in two
places, caused the floor to rot
to a point that a child could fall
through
Those two places are in a
room now kept locked and
unused, and in a used
classroom, where the spot is
covered by carpet and a table.
Other rooms are kept empty
and locked or are used for
storage because of safety
hazards.
Green pointed out a rafter in
a classroom on the ground
floor that is bowed and
cracking from rot. Ceilings in
other rooms are warped, and
alee afelMMng a*^ resu* of
moistare. /
Green said that most
problems stem from con
struction of an addition to the
60 year-old main buildhtg that
Black Mountain firemen
to hold open house
The Black Mountain Fire
Department wiii observe Fire
Prevention Week with an open
Muse from 2 to 5 p.m. October
!
The department' s equip
ment wiii aii be on diapiay,
and fire truck rides wiii be
given to children and aduits.
Refreshments wiii also be
served According to Fire
Chief Gary Bartlett, the open
house will be postponed until
October 15 if it rains Sunday
All persons are invited.
The Black Mountain Fire
Department made one run last
week. A report of a stabie fire
at Monte Vista Stabies turned
out to be a controlled burning
on September 30. Two engines
and 17 men responded.
The County Ambulance
Service made nine routine and
five emergency runs last
week
Our Valley
dfecZines
totfA va%feygrr<pM?f/t
byBUJPenfound
and Jane Hedge
It is probable that the early
Pioneers witnessed huge
Hocks of passenger pigeons
and smaller Mocks of Carolina
parakeets. Of the larger
mammals they would have
sighted the gray wolf which
**s iast recorded in Bun
combe Co. in MM.
They might have seen the
tiustve puma (cougar, pan
ther) which may still be
Present in the high mountains
"" the basis of tracks and
supposed sighfings in the last
**w years. Of the ungulates
the elk (wapiti) was last
"'ewed In 1M9 and the bison
buffalo) was last seen about
MM. Apparently the redu&
bon in the fabulous Mocks ol
passenger pigeons was due tc
the hunting of the bird for
tood Birds were attacked on
the nest and woods were se!
afire "The last passenger
pigeon, an aged female called
Martha, died on September 1,
1914, in the Cincinnati Zoo"
(Wagner, 1971:317). The
Carolina parakeet was
eiiminated because of its
fondness for man's crops
Apparently the pioneers
viewed all competing animals
as expendable, especially the
large birds and mammals
There is iittie doubt that
clearing of [and and sub
sequent farming have reduced
the number of forest
organisms However, it is
probabie that the totai
number of plant and animal
species had increased by
farming practices around the
turn of the twentieth century
Many new habitats were
created including the forest -
field border and the rail -
fence haven for wildlife The
fence row served as a travel
lane, a food source, a place of
escape and a nook in which to
live. Abundant birds along
railfence rows included
bobwhites, cardinais, cat
birds, kingbirds, orioies,
robins, song sparrows and
predatory birds such as the
bam owi, screech owi, red
taiied hawk and sparrow
hawk. Fence-row mammals
comprised severs! species of
mice; but also chipmunks,
cottontails, groundhogs (wood
chucks), possums and skunks
The penultimate predator of
the fence-row was the red fox
with man as the ultimate,
super-predator According to
Smith (1974:12) many farms
considered the fence-row as
an outmoded nuisance, since
they wasted precious far
mland. Throughout The
Valley, moat rail fences have
been replaced by wire fences
Furthermore, the immediate,
weedy borders have been
destroyed.
iimited the number of
downspouts from the Hat
roofed building to two. In a
heavy rain, water puddies up
and seeps between the wails —
and into the ceilings of vir
tually every room in the older
building. The existing wiring
is the original cloth-covered
exposed wiring installed when
the school was built, adding to
safety hazards there, Green
pointed out.
Based on suggestions from
Myers and Keever, the sub
committee chose to keep the
presentation to the school
board brief and simple, but
with an intense emphasis on
the immediate need to correct
problems at the Primary
School.
"We aren't going to tell
them we need a new school —
we' 11 just show them that
something has to be done.
They'll see for themselves, I
believe, that a new school is
the only way," Myers said A
Keever said that his ex
perience in dealing with the m
Schooi Board is that there is
iittie effect from even the best
demonstrations unless a ))
number of persons are present
to bach it up.
"I'm afraid that you'd be
wasting your money making ?
slides if you can't pack that .
board meeting with parents,'' g
he said.
Myers said that the sub- g
committee will meet soon with
the joint school committees to
present the plan to enlist the 4
aid of all parents in the school
district, as was done to obtain
a new school In Swann an oa, to ?
attend the presentation to the jj
school board.
A printed list of other ^
problems in the Owen district
schools will be given to each s
school board member at that ^
time, also, the subcommittee
agreed.
A group e/fort makes the potato harvest easier on
the Lee Hutchtns Farm near Tom Brown Road
(Dan Ward)
AML profits down little despite 1-40 opening
by Dan Ward
Profits from the Black
Mom tain ABC Store for the
iast quarter were down only
7.36 per cent from the previous
year, in spite of predictions
compietion of 1-40 would cut
considerabiy into business
from, traveler*
.Profits from the quarter
ware disclosed at the Sep
tember 38 meeting of the
Black Mountain ABC Board.
W.L. Wheeion, store
manager, toid the board that
income from the quarter was
(229,237.50, down ap
proximately 7.36 per cent
from the same period in 1977.
Wheeion said that traveling
salesmen and pseaons from
oat of town^ave continued to
stop at the store, even though
interstate traffic now
bypasses Biaett Mountain. A1
Richardson, one of three ABC
Board members, said eariier
predictions indicated that
business at the ABC store
would drop by as much as 20
per cent.
In tight of the relatively
s,naii dr.p tn Mdes,^,bo.rd.
mfdrr '.My agreed to drop a
ptan to buitd another store
near the interstate highway.
The board had set aside
$9,834 — the amount paid
yeariy on the mortgage before
the mortgage was retired last
year — as a down payment on
a new store. The new store
in view of revisions in the
NC Open Meetings Act that
require a board to give 48
hours advance pubiic notice of
non-reguiar meetings, the
board agreed to set the third
Wednesday of each month at 4
p.m. as the regular meeting
time of the ABC Board.
rd, heid a)t
reopen to the^
The board si! to chose to put
off action on a suggestion by
the NC Board of Aicohoi'c
Control that the stare instaii
two special cash registers that
keep inventory as weii as
receipt records. The
machines cost (4300 each. The
cash registers now used in the
store were approved by the
state, board when they were
bou^hf, at (2700 each, a few
years ago.
Onc-maw sf ?tat% j?/acc m foca% economy
by Dan Ward
ed. note — When debate
over the mixed drink
referendum wax at its height,
opponents said that liquor did
not fit in with the religious
character of the vaiiey.
Proponents pointed out that
the vaiiey's first export, and
the basis of its eariy economy,
was diatiiled whiskey and
appie brandy. Mary Lindsey
is one of a number of persons
Uving in the vaiiey who is
descended from the eariy
distillers.
Days were when running off
white liquor was not only
respectaMe around here, but
an art.
Mary Lindsey, who today, at
94, still works a good-siMtl
garden, one of the most ad
mired in Biack Mountain,
remembers the days when it
was her job to carry firewood
up to her father's government
licensed stili in McDoweii
County and watched him at
work in one of the most prided,
but underpaid professions at
the turn of the century.
"Sure, there were some who
thought he shouldn't make it,"
Mrs. Lindsey said of the
neighbors of her father.
Charles Godfrey "But manv
others were glad he made it."
The alternative to buying
his government-reguiated
whiskey was to get blockade,
or bootleg, whiskey from the
moonshiners.
"There was a steam
distillery in Marion then, but it
was just like white lightnin' —
fiery and all. Blockade stills
operated under a whole dif
ferent sort of rules, you know,"
she said.
"There wasn't much money
to be made at a government
still because there was a man
there all the time from the
government to oversee how
much whiskey was made and
what was put into it. He was
called the storekeeper.'
"If they (licensed distillers)
made more than their quota,
they had to sneak in the extra
ingredients on the side so that
(he book man didn't know
anything about it. That'! the
way the majority of the men
that ran the distilleries made
their money. They had to be
very carefui about what they
did and who knowed it,'' she
said. ,
Under government license,
a distilier would supply the
equipment and iabor while the
government provided the
whiskey ingredients. For his
iabor, the distilier would get a
small percentage of the
finished whiskey, which he
could sell himself by the
bottie or in barrels to a
wholesaler. Mrs. Lindsey
said her father sold to a
wholesaler after attempting to
sell individual bottles.
"At one time, he had an
open bar, but it didn't last long
— people tormented him so.
They'd come in the night and
want whiskey, and Dad din t
care for that. He called it his
grocery store,''' she added
with a laugh
More than 80 years later,
Mrs. Lindsey remembers well
how her father's still was run.
Would-be distillers would
"find a place somewhere
'/f
Lard worL, Loney^
—3fary Lindsey
where they cuM {M water
Then they'd geM'glly dig a
trench for a turned for the
stiil. They'd use a^umace like
you' d use for making
moiasses."
A furnace would b< built of
clay and brick or stdp around
the copper still itself with a
flue created at the %tposite
end of the trench fain where
the fire is stoked, A- said.
Her father 's distillery .dually
consisted of three stills dith a
capacity of 100 to 200 Sllons
each, lined up neat t bach
other in a still house The
stills were so large, eacihad a
set of steps that hadto be
climbed to pour in th fer
mented mash.
"The cap (lid), tened
upside down would hold bout
a bushel, "Mrs. Lindsey iad
"From that, there's a ctl of
pipe that fits right down irn a
barrel of water and comeout
to a spickett at the other ed.
A worm is what you call ist
coil. 1 guess it was abdut, h,
an inch in diameter,"she aid,
making a circle with sr
fingers to show the width tf
the pipe.
The barrel, or singling tan*
had a continuous flow of cef
creek water flowing through %
to cool the coil, so that vapt
from the cooking mash woui '
be condensed to iiquid.
Preparation ot the mash, o ^
'beer' , was the most pain
staking part of the process
and the one where moon
shiners took the most short
cuts.
The first step to mash
making, and one btockaders
today bypass by using yeast
and sugar, was preparation of
mait from sprouted com.
Charies Godfrey wouid fiii a
buriap sack with com, soak it,
and sprinkie water on it daily
until one-inch sprouts were
formed. He would dry the
sprouts and take them to a
mill to be ground, all subject
to the scales and scrutiny of
the storekeeper.'
For bootliquor moonshine,
why they'd just beat it with a
hammer while it was wet, or
just run it through a sausage
mill," Mrs. Lindsey said.
A peck of this malt would be
mixed with a peck of rye meal
and a bushel of com meal and
water in a targe barrel, or
hogshead, and be allowed to
ferment.
"1 don't remember just how
tong the mash had to ferment
before it was ready to be
cooked," Mrs. Lindsey said.
She said her father would
occasionally have to use a
shovel-like mash stick' to
break up globs of dough-like
meal that floated to the sur
face. Days later, he would
pour the milky beer' into the
still, seal the cap with rye
flour paste, and begin cooking
the heady mixture.
. Under the eyes of a
government inspector, he
would test the alcohol content
of the liquid that was distilled,
and shut the furnace down the
moment the purity dropped
below the legal level.
"When it (the mash) lost a!'
its strength, he would turn he
stuff left over, the slop, into
the hog lot for the hogs and
* cattle They didn't get drunk
on it, but they loved it,'' she
said.
Then the government
would take so many gaiions of
e apirits, and Oaddy would
't a gallon.
Working for the
#vemntent like that warn't
easiest way to make a
ving — there was a lot of
*#k to It. honey," she said,
'Oghing