1943 North Shore Road Association
An agreement was drawn up in 1943 between the Department of Interior, the State of NC, the TVA and the people of Swain County saying a road would be built to replace the old N.C. Highway 288, which would provide access back to the cemeteries on the North Shore of Fontana Lake. The people of the North Shore clung to this promise, but alas no road, so the 1943 North Shore Road Association was formed in 1985 to help the residents of the Forney Creek Township fight for the completion of the road promised to them in 1943.
The Tennessee Valley Authority paid very little for the land taken for easement to build Fontana Dam and fill the Fontana Reservoir, in fact the price the TVA paid for 1000 acres would not buy 10 acres in any of the surrounding counties. Also, if the North Shore People owed back taxes, the TVA did not have to pay them one thin dime. We are talking about people who lived during the depression, many only surviving because they had a good milk cow and a few chickens because there was no money to provide them with food. When these people left the North Shore they left the only way of life they had ever known behind, therefore 1943 North Shore Road Association will not rest until 1943 agreement is fulfilled, nothing less will do.
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2 comments :
Um.
I guess they'll never rest at all then.
This fight is o-v-e-r.
It's kind of like the old tales about Japanese soldiers marooned on Pacific Islands who decades later still thought the war was going on.
This fight will go on as long as we live.
IF you were from the South, you'd understand about long memories, and ties to the land.
The elected officials who approved the bribe money will pay. Their re-elections will be difficult affairs.
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