DuPont's Fotofax Provided a Wealth of Information

In September 1956 the E.I. DuPont Company purchased thousands of acres in Transylvania and Henderson counties to build the first full-scale silicon plant in the United States.  Located north of the Cedar Mountain community, the area provided unpolluted air and clean water from the Little River which was required for the production of hyper-pure silicon.

Methanol Condenser being moved into place by a crane.  The gearbox at
the lower left is for the extruder that force polymer through the filters.

Silicon was used for electronic devices such as radios, televisions and telephone switchboards.  It was a booming industry in the late 1950s.  However, within just a few years demand was down and DuPont decided to close its silicon production.  Rather than closing the site though, they expanded and constructed a larger plant for x-ray film which officially began operation in May 1964.  

DuPont continued to grow over the next three decades with several major expansions throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.  At its peak in the 1980s DuPont employed nearly 1500 people.

In mid-1968 the Brevard DuPont Plant began publishing a company newsletter sharing information about the facility, its products, the employees and the surrounding community.  A contest was held to name the newsletter.  The most frequently suggested name was “The X-Ray”.  “Photo Facts” was the second most suggested, but the winner was a variation by Maintenance Foreman Tom Walker who submitted, “Fotofax”.  

The Continuous Polymerization area enclosed with as the result of
climatological data failure--colder than anticipated temperatures.
It was permanently enclosed in 1964.

The lead story in the first issue covered the 10 year anniversary of the Brevard Plant and included numerous photos of employees sharing their work with their families.  The issue also included “From the Banks of Brandywine to a Brevard Mountain Top” the story of how Eleuthere Irenee du Pont de Nemours, a French immigrant and the company’s founder, got his start manufacturing gunpowder in Wilmington, Delaware in the early 1800s.

Future issues tell of company improvements and expansions, safety measures, cost reduction programs and employee retirements or promotions.  There are also stories about the care and management of the property including controlled burns, reforestation projects and the role of the company forest ranger.

A major part of employees’ life centered around not just their jobs but enjoying the opportunities offered to them and their families through the Plant and the extensive property.   The DuPont Employees Recreation Association (D.E.R.A.) planned activities ranging from bowling teams to the annual company picnic.  They administered the use of the Guion property and designated hunting and fishing areas.  “Fotofax” is full of information and photographs about activities and events.

The publication never had a regular schedule—issues varied from two to twelve per year, with four to six most years.  In June 1988 they published FOTOFAX 100, the one-hundredth and final issue.  Recently all issues have been made available online at digitalnc.org.  Whether reliving memories or learning about this era of the DuPont State Recreational Forest’s history this resource provides a wealth of information.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments, or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

Little River: Home to Hogs and Gladiolas

Little River Township, located in southeastern Transylvania County, is bordered by Boyd, Brevard and Dunn’s Rock townships, as well as Henderson County and South Carolina. 

Most of the creeks and streams within the township feed into the Little River before entering the French Broad River.  The Little River actually originates in the Dunn’s Rock Township, crosses beneath Hwy 276 near the Sequoyah Woods subdivision and then runs on the west side of the highway.  It does not cross back to the east until beyond the intersection of Cascade Lake Road with Hwy 276 behind the Cedar Mountain Fire Department.

The Little River valley provides land for both crops and grazing.

The Little River runs through DuPont State Recreational Forest where it tumbles over Bridal Veil Falls, High Falls, Triple Falls and Hooker Falls.  Along the way it picks up the waters of numerous creeks including Reasonover, Grassy and Hooker.

Further downstream, near the confluence with Merrill Creek the former Cascade Power Company dam forms the base of Cascade Lake.  From Cascade Lake until it reaches the French Broad River the Little River meanders through a wide valley.

Hogs gave the Little River area its nickname of Hogtown.

The Little River Turnpike connected Crab Creek Road in the valley to the Jones Gap Road, which led into South Carolina.  It was a major route for drovers taking hogs and other livestock to market during the 1800s.  Near the intersection of present day Crab Creek and Cascade Lake roads, drovers could pen their stock overnight leading to the area becoming known as Hogtown.

Early settlers were attracted to the fertile lands around the French Broad and Little rivers.  They grew corn, grain, hay and vegetables.  Chickens, hogs and cattle were the typical livestock.  The Little River Community Club scrapbooks, covering the years of 1952-1995, show the continued importance of agriculture to the Little River community during the mid-to-late 1900s. 

Gladiolus being loaded at the Thomas Farm in Little River.

In 1952 there were eight dairies and seven farms that raised cattle, three with chickens and two with turkeys in the Little River community.  The main crops included corn, hay and tobacco.  There were also apple orchards and tree farms.  By the 1960s millions of gladiolus were being grown on the Thomas farm.  The farm also had packing sheds where flowers and bulbs were packaged to ship to market.

Sixteen of the Little River Community Club scrapbooks can be viewed online at digitalnc.org.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments, or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

Brief Timeline History of Boyd Township

The old Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway was located
at the northern edge of Boyd Township.

Boyd Township covers the northeastern part of the county and, like several other Transylvania townships, over half of it lies within the Pisgah National Forest.  The northern boundary runs roughly along the Blue Ridge Parkway from mile marker 407 to 413.  The Pisgah Inn, Pink Beds and Cradle of Forestry are all in Boyd Township.  Popular trails in the area included Buck Springs, Cantrell Creek and Turkeypen Gap.  The South Mills River and its tributaries provide drainage for much of its national forest lands. 

The populated portion of the township is bisected by the Asheville Highway (Hwy. 280) and the Hendersonville Highway (Hwy 64).  As settlers began to arrive in the region following the American Revolution there was a need for roads.  In 1790 the local militia company was ordered to build a wagon road following the Estatoe Path from the Swannanoa River to the Davidson River.  This road would be known as the Boyleston Road, the Asheville Highway and Highway 280 through the years.

The southern boundary of Boyd Township runs along the French Broad River from the mouth of Glade Creek to the Henderson County line placing Highway 64 from the Blue Ridge Memory Gardens cemetery to the county line within the township.  The railroad connecting Brevard to Hendersonville also ran through this same area with stops at Davidson River (near Everett Rd.), Penrose, and Blantyre.

Highway 280 appears as a graded county road on the 1930 North Carolina
Road Survey of Transylvania County.  The hard-surfaced road to
Hendersonville was Highway 28 at that time.

When North Carolina’s highway system was in its infancy in the 1920s a road ran from Murphy to Bat Cave, passing through Transylvania County.  This was originally known as Hwy 28.  In the early 1930s the highway number was changed to 64.  Old highway maps found on the North Carolina Maps website https://web.lib.unc.edu/nc-maps/ show the evolution of the highway system over a period of years.  A 1924 state highway system map shows the portion passing through Transylvania County from Boyd Township to Rosman as hard-surfaced, west of Rosman is just a graded road.  Highway 280 through Boyd Township does not appear on these maps until 1930 and is not hard surfaced until the mid-1930s.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments, or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

Dunn's Rock Township Attracted Summer Camps

 At just over 30 square miles Dunn’s Rock is the smallest township in land area.  However, the population density is higher than all other townships in the county, except Brevard.   It is surrounded by Eastatoe, Cathey’s Creek, Brevard and Little River townships, with a small portion of the southern boundary bordering South Carolina. 

Chestnut Hill was built by Charlestonian, Rev. Stuart Hanckel in 1856. 
He was influential in building St. Paul's-in-the-Valley, the first Episcopal
Church in Transylvania County, and served as its minister from 1860-1872. 
Both the home and church were located in Dunn's Rock Township.

The first settlers, who came into the area in the late 1700s, filed land claims with Buncombe County in the State of North Carolina.   Within a few years a portion of the land was involved in a land dispute when Georgia claimed a twelve-mile-wide strip of land known as the Orphan Strip and established Walton County.  After additional surveys definitively located the 35^th parallel the area was officially determined to be in North Carolina.  Today, the former Orphan Strip lies mostly in the Dunn’s Rock and Eastatoe townships of Transylvania County.

In the 1850s wealthy plantation owners from the Charleston area came to the mountains to escape the heat, humidity, insects and illness of the lowlands.  They purchased large tracts of land in the fertile valley around the French Broad River.  Following the Civil War many of the Charlestonians, who had lost much of their wealth, did not return to the mountains or moved into the growing town of Brevard. 

Nevertheless, by 1870 the U.S. census listed 422 residents living in the Dunn’s Rock Township, giving it a population density of just under fourteen individuals per square mile.  Cathey’s Creek was the only township in the county that had a higher number of people per square mile at that time.

This sketch of Gay Valley is from a 1960s camp brochure.

Another important aspect of the Dunn’s Rock area is summer camps.  Rockbrook Camp for Girls, which began in 1921, was one of the earliest camps in Transylvania County.   Two years later, Rev. Samuel Morris and his wife opened Connestee Cove for Girls on Island Ford Road.  Miss Mary Gwynn had been operating a co-educational camp on the west side of Brevard when she purchased Connestee Cove for Girls in 1942 and renamed it Camp Gay Valley.  After Gwynn’s niece and her husband took over the camp they changed the name to Gwynn Valley Camp.

Both camps, along with High Rocks Camp for Boys which was established in 1958, are still in operation.  Former camps in the township have included Camp Brevard for Girls, Camp Perry Ann, Camp Catechee, Deep Woods Camp, and Piedmont Camp, a summer retreat for employees of Piedmont Mills in South Carolina.

Today Dunn’s Rock Township includes the communities of Glen Cannon, Connestee Falls (a portion is in Eastatoe Township), Sherwood Forest and other developments.  Dunn’s Rock Township has a higher median age of residents (60.4 years) than other townships in the county, which range from 42.3 (Gloucester) to 48.3 (Eastatoe).  

Land area and population statistics for this series of township articles are from www.usboundary.com using 2010 census data and Ancestry.com for historical census figures.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments, or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.

Key Role the Township Plays in Local Government

This map shows the townships and bordering counties in
both North Carolina and South Carolina.

 Over the last few weeks Picturing the Past has been looking at the history of Transylvania County through each of its township.  Leading to the questions of, what is a township and what is it significance?

When the North Carolina government was restructured following the Civil War the state experimented with township government.  Under this system counties were subdivided into townships with their own elected officials who held limited governmental powers.  Although this form of governing only lasted a couple of years, townships did continue to hold responsibility for road construction and maintenance within their district.  Today townships are used primarily to provide boundary lines in the county for tax-listings, census districts and voting precincts.

Brevard is the largest and most populated township in Transylvania County.  It covers over 63 square miles.  The southern boundary of the township follows on or near the French Broad River from Barclay Road almost to the confluence with the Little River.  The township runs northward to Haywood County with portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Transylvania County.  It is bordered by Boyd Township on the east and Cathey’s Creek and Gloucester townships on the west.

The 2010 population was over 11,000 but the residents all live in the southern portion of township in and around the City of Brevard and the Pisgah Forest community.  Approximately two-thirds of the land area is located in the Pisgah National Forest.

The English Chapel has been an active church since 1860.  The early
building was also used as a school for families in that part of Brevard
Township prior to the creation of the Pisgah National Forest.

In the 1800s, before George Vanderbilt purchased large tracts of land, there were a number of families that settled along the Davidson River and surrounding areas.  Occasional rock foundations or chimney remnants, patches of garden flowers such as daffodils and several small cemeteries give evidence of homesteads and small communities that once existed.

Water-powered mills once operated on the Davidson River.  Iron ore was hauled from Boylston Creek to make iron bars at the Davidson River Iron Works.  The bars were then sent to Asheville to be made into goods.  During the Civil War the mill was operated by the Confederacy.  The Cagle family operated a grist mill and later manufactured linsey-woolsey fabric near Sycamore Flats on the river.

In 1912 Louis Carr acquired nearly 70,000 acres from Mount Pisgah to Pisgah Forest from Vanderbilt.  He ran over 100 miles of standard gauge railroad to transport the timber to his mill in Pisgah Forest.  The old rail line beds are often visible to hikers in the national forest.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments, or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-1820.