CHANNEL MARKERS - bet you didn’t know
History Lane
McAuley Road in Huntersville is now a N.C. Scenic Byway by Renee Roberson photo courtesy of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission
McAuley Road in Huntersville has officially received designation as a North Carolina Scenic Byway. This dirt and gravel road between N.C. 73 and Huntersville-Concord Road provides access to a few remaining homesteads and a public roadway. The Board of Commissioners for both the Towns of Huntersville and Davidson voted to support this effort to include the road as a North Carolina Scenic Byway. The distinction will help serve as an indication to keep the road and property around it unchanged. The road is also part of 1,000 acres of protected land that will never be developed. McAuley Road Farmland received designation as a local historic landmark in 2007. According to The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, “With the phenomenal growth of Charlotte and
22
LAKE NORMAN CURRENTS | JANUARY 2022
Mecklenburg County during the 20th Century, the McAuley Road Farmland is the last large area of the county that accurately depicts for the public, the once dominant late 19th century and early 20th agricultural character of Mecklenburg County.” A characteristic found among most state byways include having an area with little development and a lot of natural scenery. Other unpaved roads that remain in Mecklenburg County include Duke Power’s Mountain Island Lake boat ramp access road, and the westernmost section of Neck Road. But none of these other roads have been identified as part of a productive agricultural landscape like McAuley Road. Visitors to McAuley Road experience what was once the most common landscape in the county, but today is the rarest.
