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.