TPA UPDATE

January 2008

Contents

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* NC "Migration Trails" Project Starts in 2008 *

* TPA to Enroll County Chapters in 2008 *

* "Fords and Mills", Exploring NC, February 14th *

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Sponsor Acknowledgments

Donor Maps Slightly Delayed

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Last and Next First Sunday Hikes

February First Sunday Hike On the Upper Trading Path

January First Sunday Hike On an Occaneechi Trail

Other Upcoming Events

Prizery - Reenacting Greene's Crossing of the Dan, February 8-9

Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution Battlefield Tour, March 29th

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Call for Volunteers

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The NC Department of Commerce has asked the TPA to organize a state-wide array of "Migration Trails".  The first of these will be the Great Wagon Road.  This will be a proof of product project to debug the method to be used and demonstrate feasibility.  We will engage historians, tourism, economic development, and other planning persons in every county along each trail.  They will basically define their assets.  The TPA will develop the over-all trail and assist as needed with reconciling interpretations.  This promises to be a wonderful project, a great challenge and an excellent opportunity for the TPA.  Once we've demonstrated and debugged the process of development we believe we'll be able to apply the process to almost every North Carolina county as we have thus far identified at least a dozen old trade routes that evolved into migration routes into the Old North State ranging from the Dismal Swamp Trail of the Quakers and Green's Path and the Great Central Coast Road in the East, to the Unicol Trail and Rutherford's Trail in the west, with a handful of Occaneechi, Catawba, Waxhaw, Cheraw, and Saura Trails in between.

If you are aware of an old trade route in your county, advocate for it with us and, eventually, with your county politicos and economic development folk.  Heritage tourism is without a doubt the best bang for the buck economic development available for most NC counties.

In 2008, if we can acquire interns to assist with the project, the TPA will institute a county chapter program in which we will enroll TPA chapters at the county level.  These chapters will, in time, become active participants in the TPA mission.  Included in chapter membership will be training in finding and reporting road elements and so forth.  If you are interested in assisting with this project in your county, let us know by writing to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

This year celebrate Valentine's Day by watching Exploring NC.  Tom Earnhardt's wonderful series about North Carolina places will feature the TPA in a February 14, 2008 segment on "Fords and Mills."  for much of the past spring and summer Tom Magnuson traveled around the piedmont with the Exploring NC crew showing them mills and fords from the Yadkin to the Neuse.  We hope you'll tune in to "Exploring NC" on February 14th or one of its several repeat dates. 

Here's a picture of Tom Earnhardt admiring a pine-nut warehouse.

Once again, our sponsors have demonstrated great generosity in the past month.  To wit:  ESRI provided a free upgrade for the software we use for mapping sites; Maptech provided us with the latest and greatest version of the software we use most of all for mapping, TerrainNavigator Pro; and Pace Development surprised us over the holidays with a $1000.00 donation.  You will recall that Pace is the company behind "Lawson", the development outside Waxhaw, in Union County where we performed a study a couple of years ago.  The executive summary of our report to Pace Development eventually became a booklet sketching the history of the land they developed.  The object of that project was to provide new home owners with a sense of their new place.  Apparently it worked.  Thank you: Brian and Stephen Pace, ESRI, and Maptech.
Pace Development

For want of software our promised donor maps will be delayed, briefly we hope.  We found that our Office 2000 just wasn't up to the task of publishing the reports we designed, so we're in the process of upgrading the software.  We ought to have the new programs in hand in the next week........we hope.

We met at "Oak Cliffs," (shown in picture to the left) the Hays family seat, a 19th century plantation on Hyco Creek in Halifax County, Virginia for our January FSH and it was a glorious day.  The owners, George and Margaret Hays shared their beautiful, historic property with a herd of fifty people.  We were gentle with the privilege.  Weather couldn't have been betterfor a wonderful stroll into the past.  We made our way down to Hyco Creek on and along side an 18th century roadbed.  At the creek we saw railroad trestle abutments, wagon bridge abutments, and the remnants of a free stacked stone bridge abutment as well.  We walked back out on an old railroad bed and ended the walk at the plantation house.  We slowly made our way back to the cars, stopping to admire the family cemetery.  With apologies for not identifying the hiker in the scarf, we see to the right Bethan, Pip and Jane obviously deep in concentration and conversation along the way.  We owe member Bill Nichols a debt of gratitude for arranging this hike with his kin, the Hays family.

We will meet once again at Duke Forest west of Hillsborough for our February First Sunday Hike.  This is a favorite spot filled with artifacts of early roads, quarries, cabins, and farmsteads.  We've never hiked here that we didn't find something new.  The meeting place is along the east-bound connector between Interstate 85/40 and Highway 70 near interchange 161 of the interstate.  Exit the interstate and follow the connector northward.  After about a half mile begin looking for Trading Path event signs.  Click the map to the right for a larger image.

Fo some time the TPA has been locating bits and pieces of what appears to have been one of the earliest trading paths in the southeast, a path that connected the Chesapeake with all of the Native American folk in the southeast.  This path, later trail, later road crossed the Eno River several places above the great bend; at the future site of Maddocks Mill, at the future site of Fawcette Mill, at or Halls Mill and at least one or two spots farther upstream depending, it seems on water conditions and ultimate destinations.  The most downstream crossing along the Haw River on this line was at Saxapahaw.  The most upstream probably at Ossippi or even High Rock.  The main line, though, ran down Highway 57 and Mount Willig Road in Orange County, Mount Willing Road in Alamance County and crossed the Haw at Cedar Cliffs.  A variety of evidence indicates this Haw crossing is where John Lawson forded in 1701.  We'll look at a portion of this venerable path/trail/road.  The map to the left is a GIS representation of the mapping we've done on this line in Orange County.  The brown lines are actual roadbed remnant.

In South Boston, VA on the 8th and 9th of February there will be a commemoration of General Greene's crossing of the Dan River.  This is a two day event and includes dining opportunities, plays, reenactors, and static displays.  It should be quite exciting.  Information about this event can be found and tickets for the event can be arranged at the Prizery web site.

The Corps of Discovery of SCAR, in cooperation with the Sons (SAR) and Daughters (DAR) of the American Revolution has organized a car tour of three Revolutionary War sites (two battlefields and a British Army camp site) for March 29th.  We will visit Clapps Mill battlefield, Pyles Defeat/the Hacking Match site, and the area where General Cornwallis camped his army (around Alamance Battleground).  Each stop will have an expert interpreter to walk participants through the events and Tom Magnuson will be along to tie things together.  This is an all day event and as the date approaches we'll provide more details.  We know now that we'll meet in the morning at Lake Macintosh, near the Clapps Mill monument.  We have a general idea of how we'll handle lunch.  And we know how we'll end the day, but details need to be firmed up before announcing more.  As the date approaches you'll probably be able to get detailed information at the SCAR website.  Meanwhile, the TPA will post the latest information on its Events list as well.

To make all of our projects happen we will need volunteer help over the next few months. 

If you think you can help in any of these capacities, please, let us know by calling us at 919-644-0600 or emailing us at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

As  a "Road Scholar" for the NC Humanities Council, Tom will go anywhere in the state of North Carolina
to speak on transportation and migration in the colonial backcountry of the southeast.  Paid for with grants from the
Humanities Council (www.nchumanities.org), these talks must be open to the public, so we'll announce here and on
our website (under "Events") whenever we have a talk scheduled.  Kindly notify the hosting organization of your intent
to attend.