Further South
November 02, 2005
Many of you have alluded to a possible similarity between my PEACE ON THE ROAD and ON THE ROAD WITH CHARLES KURLT. Most of those comments were made before I had written more than about twice. I didn’t realize that we had the book; as a matter of fact we have taken the book with us in our travels. I recently found the book and read it. I found his writing to be interesting, he wrote about a lot of unique people. However, once you get past the ON THE ROAD any similarity between his writing and my writing is nonexistent. The book of Kuralt’s is about people that happen to be somewhere that can be reached by a road. Except for people that contributed to some notable event of history I can’t recall that I have written of any particularly significant person. I did enjoy Kuralt’s book and if you can read it or read a few stories out of it, you should. Each of his people stories is only from to two to four pages in a paperback book.
We are currently in Georgia, just seven miles from Florida. The last three weeks we were in North Carolina and drove down here over two days. It seems that everywhere we stay for a while has interesting places and opportunities to learn. Of course that is exactly the way we were hoping it would be. We have an interest in many things, among them covered bridges, gristmill, railroads, lighthouses, forts, mines, and other things that appear along the road. North Carolina is good country for most of the things we like. This time we visited a mine, a railroad museum, a chest of drawers and a chair, a couple of gristmills, and just the area around Salisbury, NC.
All of you that have been involved in mining know that the first documented discovery of gold in the US was a seventeen-pound nugget in North Carolina. Conrad Reed found the nugget in Little Meadow Creek while bow fishing instead of going to church with his parents. No one, including the local silversmith was able to identify the nugget as gold. It served as a doorstop in the Conrad home for several years. In 1802, John Reed, Conrad’s father, took the nugget to Fayetteville and sold it to a jeweler for $3.50. To give the jeweler a chance at honesty he did offer to buy the nugget for any price he asked. John Reed figured a week wage was a fair price for a yellow rock. But on the other hand he did not inform John Reed what it was that he was selling, or that the true value was nearer $3,600.00. The jeweler melted the gold into a bar. It has been reported that he later paid John Reed an additional $1000.00 when he wanted to buy more of the nuggets. This discovery eventually lead to the development of the Reed Mine, which today is a NC Historical Site. It was fun to go underground again after a lot of years of being only on the surface. To look at the area surrounding the mine you would not expect that there was gold in the ground. There are quartz veins below the earthen overburden and that is where the gold was primarily found, just like a lot of other places. Still I don’t think that I would look for gold in a hickory and oak forest. But as had been said so many times, “Gold is where you find it.” The museum and tour has sufficient items to interest someone who does not know the difference between a shaft and a rise, or for someone that has used a lot of the equipment they display.
LITTLE MEADOW CREEK REED MINE HEADFRAME
In doing some research on the Internet I came across a statement to the effect that by the mid 1800’s it would have been difficult to find a settlement anywhere near a stream that did not have a gristmill. I think I could easily believe that statement. We have come across many gristmills in our travels, and if we can we visit them. Erma made the observation that they are all very similar and are all very different. I suppose that statement could well apply to many of the things we enjoy seeing and it is the difference that will keep up looking for more mills. At one mill there was a sign that stated the gearing was such that for every revolution of the waterwheel the grist wheels would turn thirty-two times. I have to do more research but I do not think the waterwheels turned much over about six rpm. One operator stated that if he was to grind at full speed he could grind a bushel of corn an hour. He did not run that fast because it was too hard on the equipment. Of course if he were grinding grits or meal the production rate would be much higher. The amount of wood that is used in these mills impresses me a lot. As I grew up in the mid 1900’s I became familiar with steel and later plastic being used to build every thing. The gristmill builders were very skilled in the utilization of different types of local wood to produce their equipment. Apple wood was used to make the gears and pegs of the gears because they resisted wear. The apple wood gears were attached to oak and hickory beams because those woods had greater strength in long lengths. At one mill the whole building was built from black walnut. Today black walnut is so expensive that only the very rich can afford to have furniture out of it. There is indication that many of the gristmills were operated by farmer/millers after they had completed their farm work. A miller would also grind grain for one-eighth of the production.
WOODEN GRISTMILL GEARS AND PEGS MADE FROM APPLEWOOD
THE LARGEST CHEST OF DRAWERS IN THE WORLD IN CONCORD, NC
In the areas surrounding Charlotte, NC there is a lot of furniture manufacturing. There are a lot of things that are designed to attract the furniture wholesale buyers to the area. One that I especially enjoyed seeing was the largest chest of drawers in the world. The building is actually a residence, an apartment I think. The entrances to the building are on the backside of the chest away from the street. One thing is for sure about it, there is enough room for all the clothes any family could have in one chest of drawers.
We were very surprised about a week ago. We were driving along a road and saw a field that looked about like a snow covered plowed Kansas farm field. With the temperature in the seventies it was not snow, but it was an unharvested cotton field. In Arizona and Texas we saw a lot of harvested fields, hundreds of huge cotton stacks, and some processing operations. When we saw this field, we realized that we had never seen a field of white cotton ready for the harvester. The picture does not do justice to the scene, so if you get a chance to see the real thing you may feel a thrill like I did.
A NORTH CAROLINA COTTON FIELD READY TO PICK
I realize that you will not get this till after Thanksgiving, because that is tomorrow. Still I want to wish you all the greatest of Holiday. We have much to make us thankful. One thing that I am thankful for is the list of friends to whom I send this POTR. Some of the others are warm weather, sunshine, beautiful scenes, gasoline under $2.00, ($1.77 at one station, several at $1.99), wide roads, and level campsites. We will be here in Georgia for a week. At least we will not be on the road during the holiday. Besides this camp is having a potluck Thanksgiving dinner and they are deep-frying a couple of turkeys. We have wanted to try that for quite a while.
Till Later This Is Doug Of
PEACE ON THE ROAD
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