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S T AY SHOP | P L AY | | E N I D
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NIVERS ’S 50TH AN AIN LAKE ITH MOUNT
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You can pick up a copy of Laker 365 and Laker Map at dozens of locations around the region or at Laker Media’s office.
Turn to Laker 365 — our complete guide to restaurants, recreation, shopping and lodging — to get you where you want to be at the lake. This year’s edition has expanded listings and section titles, making it easier to find information while also giving you more of SML at your fingertips. Laker Map, our wildly popular access point for tourists and residents, will help you navigate all reaches of the lake, from Bay Roc to The Water’s Edge. This year, Laker Media has partnered with the 50th Anniversary Celebration Committee to showcase some of the biggest events of 2016.
| 272 Westlake Road, Suite 1, Hardy, VA 24101 | 540.721.4675 | smithmountainlake.com 6 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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Editor’s Note
CONTENTS May 2016
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Love the Lake
LAKE HOMES A house near White House corner in Bedford County been home to four generations of the Goode family since it was built during the Great Depression. However, renovations have given it an impressive modern feel.
Take the Laker With You
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HOME & GARDEN
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ON THE WATER Teenager Matthew Richuk, a part-time lake resident, is making a name for himself on the watercross circuit, having already notched victories in national and international competitions.
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MARINA GUIDE A list of marinas in the Smith Mountain Lake area.
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PROFILE Marcelle Melki-Ross has spent most of her life assisting refugees who want to live in the Roanoke and Smith Mountain Lake areas.
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DOCK TALE HOUR Guys, take note! Humor columnist Kimberly Dalferes goes over the fine art of tinkering.
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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CONTENTS May 2016
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ORIGINS The appeal of Smith Mountain was apparent to settlers centuries ago, but the arc that led to the creation of the dam was an intricate, ever-changing dance.
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ENGINEERING A profile from the 1960s of Earle T. Snodgrass, who supervised the dam’s construction for Appalachian Power Co.
LAKE HISTORY
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Go behind the scenes of how the dam operates, down to its crucial details.
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ANCESTRY Appalachian officials found new homes for the living and located above-water graves for the dead.
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REFLECTIONS People who worked to build the dam and lived in the area before and after the lake filled tell their stories.
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COMMUNITY The Bedford County hub of Moneta has changed from its farm roots 50 years ago.
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PHOTOGRAPHY A 16-page photo spread winds through the late 1950s and early ’60s as the dam was being built. 8 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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Stop wondering, “What if...?”
How many times have we all done it? Stood in front of the mirror and said, “I wonder what it would look like if I could erase these crows feet.” Or, “If I could just smooth out this extra padding around my tummy, I would feel more comfortable and confident in my skin.” Stop wondering, “What if?” and explore the possibilities. At the Centra Medical Group Plastic Surgery Center, you can take advantage of the latest cosmetic procedures. From Botox® and tummy tucks, to lifts and breast augmentation, we’ve got you covered. Our team of board-certified plastic surgeons has more than 50 years of experience in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery.
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Building Healthy Smiles
Offering a full range of services to the SML community for 26 years. YES! We are here! We provide Complete Care for you and your family. Specialty services are our routine. We place and restore Dental Implants all in our office. Our list of services is too long to print, so please call or stop by. We’d love to meet you.
Bryan G. Sicher, DMD www.smldentist.com Located next to Dairy Queen | Scruggs Rd., Moneta, VA Now offering SAME DAY CROWNS with CEREC! Fellow of International Congress of Oral Implantologists
PROVIDER
Editor’s Note
May 2016
Published by Laker Media
This month showcases one of the most exciting projects I have ever worked on. Since July of last year, countless hours have been spent sifting through grainy photos and delicate newspaper clippings from the 1950s, ’60s and onward in the library of The Roanoke Times. Other occasions were dedicated to pointing aging 35 mm film strips and camera slides toward a ceiling light in a forgotten storage room of the History Museum of Western Virginia. Sometimes answers came by asking the right questions or turning that last page in a book.
272 Westlake Road, Suite 1, Hardy, VA 24101 Phone: 540.721.4675 • Fax: 540.721.4627 smithmountainlake.com
STAFF EDITOR
Ryan Tipps ryan.tipps@smithmountainlaker.com CREATIVE AND PUBLICATION DESIGNER
Janette Saviano janette.saviano@smithmountainlaker.com PHOTOGRAPHER
Huong Fralin huong.fralin@smithmountainlaker.com
The goal was to discover how Smith Mountain Dam went from concept to creation to the cornerstone of a community that has not just endured, but thrived, over the past five decades.
SALES MANAGER
Alicia Lovern alicia.lovern@roanoke.com
Through vivid story-telling from local writers and the exploration of historical narratives, Smith Mountain Laker magazine presents an in-depth and insightful look at the region’s earliest days, long before many had a sense of what the lake would transform into. The image on the cover of this issue captures these nascent roots — it is artistic in scope and weighted in the belief that the existing woods and farmland would yield something great once the floodwaters began to rise.
SALES EXECUTIVE
Mishelle Brosinski mishelle.brosinski@smithmountainlaker.com SALES EXECUTIVE
Carol Craighead carol.craighead@smithmountainlaker.com
These next months, Laker magazine will take you on the journey through that growth. First-person accounts, enterprise reporting and dozens of archival photos and newspaper articles have been collected to tell the story of the lake. It will emerge in four stages: This issue looks at the concept and construction of the dam; June will address the first 25 years; July, the second quarter-century; and August will paint a picture of what the future of SML might look like — quite literally, I might add.
SALES EXECUTIVE
Jane Missel jane.missel@roanoke.com ACCOUNT DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTATIVE
Erin Stanley erin.stanley@roanoke.com
These are the stories of your friends, family and neighbors — past and present.
CONTRIBUTORS
Ryan Tipps, Editor
ON THE COVER
Before Smith Mountain Dam was sealed in 1963, farmland teemed along the Roanoke River on the borders of Bedford, Franklin and Pittsylvania counties. Photograph by Howard Hammersley Jr. from The Roanoke Times’ archives
WRITERS
Cynthia BeMent | Kimberly Dalferes | Amy Dye Rich Ellis Jr. | Catriona Tudor Erler | Justin Faulconer Ferne Hale | Jerry Hale | Kathryn Orth PHOTOGRAPHERS
Cynthia BeMent | Alie Block | Karen Dillon | Rich Ellis Jr. Brittany Greeson | Don Petersen | Emily Shafer Jim Shauberger | Natalee Waters COPY EDITOR
Karen Dillon ©2016 Times-World LLC, Smith Mountain Laker Magazine is a community publication solely owned by Times-World LLC. It is published for the residents of Smith Mountain Lake and is subject to Times-World LLC editorial policies. The views and opinions are those of the authors. The opinions expressed, unless otherwise noted, should not be construed to be those of Times-World LLC or its affiliates. Lists are for reference only and do not necessarily imply approbation. Paid advertising does not represent an endorsement by this publication. Content cannot be reproduced without written consent from Times-World LLC. All rights reserved. Real estate advertised in this publication is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968. SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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New CoNstruCtioN iN Quiet Cove One level living, Convenient to Westlake. Just steps from the lake and Gentle Slope. Covered Boat Slip and PWC lift. Wall of Windows facing the lake in Great Room w/ Cathedral Ceilings, Custom Cabinets, Granite Counters, Hardwood Floors. Room to expand in the Full Walkout basement w/ Rough In for another bath.
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wAterFroNt CottAge Great Location Near Hales Ford Bridge, Completely Remodeled,New Kitchen, Granite, Flooring Throughout, Woodburning Fireplace, Large Floating Dock, Roof, HVAC. Room to Expand in Unfinished Basement, Established Rentals of $25K+ per year income.
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Spacious open floor plan. Lower level perfect for entertaining with 12 ft ceilings. Private and peaceful setting. Triple boathouse. MLS# 817247 $699,900
The View: Long waTer, STaTe Park and The MounTain.
Watch the Sun Rise over the Dam from the Covered Deck. Home is Like New with Hardwood Floors, Hickory Cabinets, Granite Counters, & Cathedral Ceiling. Finished Basement with Patio. Attached 2 Car Garage.
MLS# 824291 $455,000 genTLy SLoPing LoT wiTh Beach MakeS ThiS waTerfronT hoMe a TreaSure.
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Larger Top Floor Condo with Leased Boatslip #50 (transfers with property).
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grANd hArbour
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hoMe on 3+ acre waTerfronT PoinT LoT
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BUY WITH US! GET $2500 AT CLOSING!
Smith Mountain Laker Magazine is produced eight times per year by Laker Media, the premier publisher of print and digital products at SML. All Laker Media publications are free and available at business locations around the SML area and at our offices (see map on Page 15). In addition, Laker Media products are available online by visiting smithmountainlake.com. DIGITAL PRODUCTS
LAKER MEDIA PRINT PRODUCTS
WEDNESDAY January 6, 2016
WEEKEND’S TOP PICKS Saturday The Sky is Falling — Space Rocks and You Join NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador Dr. Harold Geller for an engaging presentation to learn about meteorites. A jacket is recommended, and a flashlight is helpful. Where: Peaks of Otter Lodge, 85554 Blue Ridge Parkway, Bedford When: 8 to 10 p.m. Cost: Free to all parkway visitors Contact: Call 866-387-9905 to reserve your space SML Glacier Plunge Are you cold and bold enough? Join the glacier plunge to test your will power. Freezing for a reason, all proceeds benefit the Franklin Count YMCA. Lunch special, warm drinks and prizes follow the plunge at The Landing Restaurant. Where: Bernard’s Landing, 775 Ashmeade Road, Moneta When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost: Pledge $35 now to be one of the first 100 participants to receive a Glacier Plunge towel, $5 to party without the plunge Contact: Lauren Acker, 721-9622
Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia
Get the Digital Edition D I N E | P L AY | S H O P | S TAY
Fitness instructors offer tips to stay motivated with resolutions Fitness goals should be realistic, attainable and long-term, not something made on a whim.
fitness instructors agree that getting started is the easy part — staying motivated is the biggest challenge. “The hardest thing is actually committing to a plan and putting it into action,” said Carlton By Karen Dillon Weatherford, a certified strength karen.dillon@ and conditioning coach and forsmithmountainlaker.com mer Virginia Tech starting full721-4675 (ext. 407) back. Weatherford offers personal training at the SML branch of the Each year, millions of Ameri- Franklin County Family YMCA cans make New Year’s resolu- and in-home training. tions, and according to a Nielsen Putting that plan in writing poll, the top two are to stay fit and and keeping regular track of one’s healthy and to lose weight. Area progress are two ways a person
can stay motivated, Weatherford said. “It’s important to have a plan on paper. It’s easier for a person to follow when going to the gym each day,” he said. A person’s goals should be realistic and attainable, he added. Instead of using a total amount of weight a person would like to lose, Weatherford advised setting a goal of losing two to five pounds per month. “That way you don’t feel defeated if you don’t make your goal right away,” he said. Becky Rowe has taught group
exercise for more than three decades and is a fitness instructor at the Franklin County Family YMCA’s SML location. “In all areas establishing a routine with variety will keep you motivated to not get bored,” Rowe said. “A consistent daily practice — with surprises — in your diet, in your exercise routine, all help to keep you excited and motivated. You’ve got to have fun.” Like Rowe, Jill Muccino has taught Jazzercise for 28 years with 16 of those years at her
smithmoun tainlake .com
SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY
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See FITNESS, 2
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5:03 A.M. | MARCH 7
Sales benefit the Library Summer Reading Programs. Where: Franklin County Library, 355 Franklin St., Rocky Mount When: 8:30 a.m. to noon Cost: Free Contact: 483-3098
CALENDAR Thursday Coloring for Adults For ages 18 and older. No experience is necessary and supplies will be provided. This event will be held the first Thursday of each month. Where: Moneta/SML Library, 13641 Moneta Road, Moneta When: 4 to 6:30 p.m. Cost: Free Contact: 425-7004
Photos by KAREN DILLON | Laker Weekly
Libby Jamison chose a slalom waterski during the annual Polar Bear Ski Day.
Lego Club No registration required. Where: Westlake Library, 84 Westlake Road, Hardy When: 6 p.m. Cost: Free Contact: 483-3098, option 2
Friday American Red Cross Blood Donation Where: Boones Mill Christian Church, 7950 Grassy Hill Drive, Boones Mill When: 1 to 6 p.m. Cost: Free Contact: 1-800-RED-CROSS
— Karen Dillon, Laker Weekly
COMPLETE GUIDE TO
Smith Mountain Lake
!
With the air temperature hovering around 43 degrees with blustery winds coming off the lake at a home near Scruggs, eight members of the Smith Mountain Lake Waterski Club volunteered to ski, wakeboard or jump in the lake for the annual Polar Bear Ski Day. Hanging out on a dock beforehand, members recalled years where there were spring-like conditions as well as years that included ice and snow. Libby Jamison, 12, who was the youngest member to ski this year remarked that the water “wasn’t that bad.” Ashley Cooper, who was driving the boat, estimated the water temperature to be around 57 degrees, which is considered warm for this time of year.
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Love to draw? Meet artists like yourself and show off your work. Kids and teens are invited to come polish their skills with drawing prompts and workshops or just chill with friends and doodle with a variety of art supplies. Where: Bedford Central Library, 321 N. Bridge St., Bedford When: 4 to 6 p.m. Cost: Free Contact: 586-8911
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Club keeps tradition going at annual Polar Bear Ski Day
Dare 2 Draw Club
HOME SML w ne GARDEN feStivaL SML WELCOMES ITS FIRST CRAFT BREWERY GUIDE
celebrates its silver anniversary
More photos on page 2
Home Physicians Then Tour and 50K Race Garden World-Class Guide Mission Now at SML on aat Dam Sculpture Wakeboarder
Charity Chug raises $3,700 for needy
Landscape UV boat Real Estate Contest Winner protection Revival?
Stroll Down Fall Events Helping Expert Water Breakfast Pottery Lane Woodworking Roundup Refugees Safety Tips Breakdown
By Denise Allen Membreno Special to Laker Weekly
Saturday Blue Ridge Fiber Gathering An afternoon of knitting, weaving, spinning, crocheting and laughing. Where: Stewartsville Library, 45 Cascade Drive, Vinton When: 1 to 3 p.m. Cost: Free Contact: 425-7008, ext. 3
Photo courtesy of Jerry Hale
Members of the SML model railroad group, who helped organize and host the eighth annual Charity Chug fundraiser Dec. 5 and 6, visited Lake Christian Ministries to drop off proceeds totaling more than $3,700.
The love of model trains brought in some much needed cash to an area charity at Christmas. Charity Chug is an annual event that takes place the first week in December. This year, nine members of the Smith Mountain Lake Model Railroad Group opened their homes so train enthusiasts could view their elaborate model train displays. The displays came in all sizes from the smallest gauge of model railroads, the Z-gauge, at Ken Salley’s Scruggs home to a G-gauge outdoor display at Hans Weidig’s home in Wirtz. Weidig’s “Gills Creek Rail Road” wound over trestles and through forests of live landscaping and buildings such as a saw mill, farms and cabins. “Visitors to the 2015 Charity Chug donated
MORE INSIDE n Cowboy
Church finds home at horse rescue Page 3 n 50th
anniversary song to be used in ads Page 3
See CHARITY, 3
Published each Wednesday, Laker Weekly is free and includes news on area people, businesses, recreation and real estate, as well as an extensive calendar of events. Readers are invited to share information, story ideas, photos and calendar items by emailing news@lakerweekly.com.
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LAKER lakermap.com | 2016
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Everything you need to make your lake home into a paradise. Todd Rowland, the ski club’s president, is the first to take off at the Polar Bear Ski Day event on Jan. 1.
Smith Mountain Striper Club Meeting
For more events, please see page 5
e e h C & s!
ANNIVERSARY
Friends of the Library Book Sale
Guests and new members welcome. Learn about fishing for striped bass, meet fellow SML anglers. Where: Moneta Community Center, 4860 Rucker Road, Moneta When: 7 p.m. Cost: Free Contact: Joel Janecek, 708-209-6858, smsc@ smithmountainstriperclub.com
july/august 2013 september/october march/april 2013 2016
66-2016
YEARS
SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE IN E V E NVT ISR LGI S T II A NSIDE
Laker 365 is a handy guide to shopping, dining, lodging and recreation at Smith Mountain Lake. Organized by category, the publication is essential for SML residents and tourists looking for a comprehensive guide to all the area has to offer. Also included in this annual publication is a map, calendar of events and newcomer information.
Easily navigate Smith Mountain Lake on the water and off with the annual Laker Map and its digital companion, lakermap.com. The print map designates channel markers, marinas, restaurants, communities, shopping centers and more. On the reverse side is information on the lake-area’s largest retail destinations along with detailed inset maps. Use lakermap.com from your tablet or smartphone to get contact info and interactive maps for SML businesses in a wide variety of categories.
Find links to digital versions of all Laker Media products by visiting smithmountainlake.com. For even more, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/Laker365 or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Laker365.
Access to Smith Mountain Laker Magazine just got easier. Download the Laker Media app for FREE from the iTunes App Store. View current and past issues with the swipe of your finger.
Access current and back issues of Smith Mountain Laker Magazine on your tablet by visiting roanoke.com/etimes/laker_magazine. It’s free and available on desktop devices, too.
Laker Media can be found online at smithmountainlake.com, its recently redesigned site. Log on to find content from all of our print products, plus recent headlines, photo galleries, weather, real estate listings and a business directory, as well as detailed information on lake-area shopping, dining, recreation, accommodations, events and more. SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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REALTY
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HOSPITALITY Rentals & Events
Smith mountain Lake
www.ML-Realty.com tel: 540-297-3679 | www.SMLVACA.com tel: 540-297-4100
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REALTY RRESIDENTIAL esidential • COMMERCIAL commeRical
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Show us the love JOIN OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY smithmountainlake.com lakerweekly.com lakermap.com facebook.com/Laker365 twitter.com/Laker365
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Choose from over 60 in stock structures OR customize your structure to enhance your property!
SUBMIT INFORMATION Email photos, stories and story ideas to editor@ smithmountainlaker.com. Calendar items can be submitted online at www.smithmountainlake.com/calendar/.
ADVERTISE Laker Media products offer the largest reach in the Smith Mountain Lake market. For information on advertising your business in print or online, contact us at (540) 721-4675, ext. 409 or ext. 410, or at ads@smithmountainlaker.com.
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To get Laker Magazine delivered directly to your mailbox or to give it as a gift, sign up for a one-year (eight issues, $25) or two-year ($40) subscription. We accept checks, Visa and MasterCard. Email customer@smithmountainlaker.com. To get home delivery of The Roanoke Times, which includes Laker Weekly in every Wednesday’s edition (in the Smith Mountain Lake region), call (540) 981-3211 or email customer@roanoke.com.
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Free copies of Laker Magazine and Laker Weekly are available at dozens of locations around the lake region, including Kroger, Food Lion and the SML Visitor Center at Bridgewater Plaza. Pick up any any Laker Media product at our offices at Westlake Professional Park, 272 Westlake Road, Suite 1, Hardy (behind Kroger).
13020 Booker T. T Washingto Washington on n Hwy Hwy. y. Hardy, V Hardy VA 24101 (540) 721-2210 www.haywoodsjewelers.com s.ccom SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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Iceland Doyle Cockram and Bruce Tuttle had a copy of the September/October Laker magazine at Seljalandsfoss waterfall in Iceland at the end of October. This is the “walk behind” waterfall on the South Shore Tour of the island, they said. Wives Lysa Cockram and Rebecca Tuttle are behind the camera.
Vacation in: ★ Caribbean ★ Bahamas ★ Mexico ★ Central & South America ★ Ski ★ Europe
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16 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
Italy Jeff Wetter and Scott Sayre of Hardy show off the September/October 2015 issue of Laker Magazine, in which their home was featured as part of the SML Charity Home Tour. Their stop in Rome was during a 19-day trans-Atlantic cruise to the Mediterranean Sea. The vacation “was much-needed after all the work we did on our home for the tour,” Sayre said.
SPONSORED BY
Mary Anne Kauffman 540-525-2004
Tammy Brimer 434-258-9756
Betty Ann Allen 757-615-4092
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Greece Loa Herbert (from left), Anna Turner, Jim Turner, Nancy Horton and John Horton, all of Mountain View Shores in Huddleston, and Peg Schnepp (the photographer), Herbert’s sister from Michigan, took the Laker Magazine with them to Greece. This shot was taken in Rhodes on an acropolis dedicated to the goddess of Athena. They also visited the Corinthian Canal, Epidaurus, Nauflion, Mycenae, Delphi, Kalambaka, Meteora, Athens and the island of Mykonos.
Nevada
Washington, D.C.
Smith Mountain Lake regulars Keith and J Bohn Bishop of Chatham and Salemites Teddy and Chelsea Dyer, Daniel Dyer, Logan Tayloe and Ricky Kassebaum had some fun last year in Las Vegas. They showed off their copy of Smith Mountain Laker magazine on Fremont Street in downtown Vegas.
The Strain family traveled to the Smithsonian National Zoo to celebrate the 12th birthday of Garrett. “We spent a beautiful day enjoying all of the exhibits, including the Panda exhibit which included a newborn Panda named ‘Bei Bei.’” Pictured are Dean (from left) Garrett and Tyler Strain, while mom Rachael took the shot.
Send US YoUr Photo!
Take the Laker with you on your next adventure and email us your photo with a famous landmark, unusual attraction or stunning scenery in the background. And if you run into anyone famous, be sure to include him or her in the fun. Submit to letters@smithmountainlaker.com. Don’t forget to leave your magazine behind so others can discover Smith Mountain Lake!
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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SHORELINES | LAKE HOMES
BELOW. Several generations of the Goode family have called the farm house in Bedford County their home. Mary Beth (clockwise, from top left), Beckett, Jeff, Betty and Norris Goode sit on the steps of the original Goode cottage, which was finished in 1938. AT RIGHT. The Goodes’ kitchen was renovated and expanded in 2007.
Family matters Four generations of the Goode family have made their home on the same land in Bedford County.
18 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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ocated on Smith Mountain Lake Parkway near White House corner is a modernlooking house situated on farmland and shaded by three massive oaks. The trees were considerably smaller in the 1930s when “Granddaddy” Sam Goode bought these 96.2 acres, a portion of what had once been White House Plantation — originally a grant to a former owner by the king of England that extended from what was then the Staunton River (now Smith Mountain Lake) to White House corner. It is hard to imagine that the area’s open farmland was once covered with trees, mostly hard yellow pines. Sam and his three brothers, from their early teenage years, logged with their father, using mules
The serene property of the Goodes in White House has views not only of their animals but also of the surrounding mountains, including the “V” of Smith Mountain Gap. SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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SHORELINES | LAKE HOMES
This room was part of a 2011 addition that added 2,600 square feet to the original cottage, now centered on modern comfort and fashion.
and horses to collect the fallen trees for milling. A few years after their father’s death, the four brothers — now incorporated as the Goode Brothers, who all lived on contiguous farms — set up a sawmill, the ruins of which can still be seen down the hill “over yonder.” They hauled lumber to Roanoke to market and to Huddleston, where it went aboard the train for Norfolk. And they sold locally; most any area home built in the 1930s and ’40s was made of their lumber. They were in business from 1938 to 1950 when the family forest finally gave out, forcing them to search farther than was practical to find trees. After all, they all had homesteads to farm. Not to be daunted, the Goode Brothers established a cannery for Smith Mountain Brand Tomatoes across the street from Granddaddy’s parcel. Tomatoes were popular at that time, and the Goodes’ were just one of 52 tomato canneries in Bedford County; an additional 50 or so operated in the adjacent counties. The Goode Brothers also established an egg business, and each brother kept hundreds upon hundreds of chickens, which all together meant a 20 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
rather large operation. Nevertheless, by the early 1970s, big corporations moved in and made it all but impossible for the family-run operation to survive.
The house Takes shape
Mary Beth Goode selected every piece used in decorating the home.
In 1936, Granddaddy started construction on the house that today still stands, then a clapboard, Depression-style cottage of 1,200 square feet — three rooms upstairs and five down. The 30-by-40-foot house was finished in 1938. His son Norris, who grew up in that house, lives with his wife Betty Tuck Goode a half-mile down the road and fondly recalls his first Christmas there when he was 6. “For the few years before electricity and indoor plumbing, I would haul buckets of water from the creek about 75 yards down the hill from the house,” Norris said. “Southside [Electric Company] brought electricity to Huddleston in 1940, and we got running water and indoor plumbing. But my mother continued to cook on a Bluebird wood stove that gave off the most wonderful smells. It was several years before she finally broke down and agreed to an electric one.”
In 1950 Norris’ parents, for reasons no one remembers, removed the dormer from the front of the house, sacrificing one upstairs bedroom. By 1953, they had completely bricked over the exterior of the house (the hard yellow pine siding was notorious for shedding paint after just a couple of years, Norris’ son Jeff Goode explained), significantly modernizing its appearance. Also in 1950, Norris left for college. When he married and needed a home, he built one near the Peaks of Otter in Bedford County, which is where Jeff lived during his childhood. But Jeff has fond childhood memories of time spent at his grandparents’ farm, playing with his many cousins and riding dirt bikes along trails to swim in the Staunton [Roanoke] River, below what is now Mariners Landing. Part of that property formerly belonged to Marion Goode, Jeff’s uncle. Once the lake filled, they went there to swim and fish, marking them among the first to make memories at the Jewel of the Blue Ridge. College took Jeff away from the area — he graduated from Wake Forest University, then went to Seattle for seven years where he completed medical school. But the family homestead called, and he came back to take over the farm in 1997. After a
The Goodes’ master bedroom land sale to pay off medical school loans, 87 acres suite channels the same remain. “I always knew I’d come back,” Jeff said. “All you modern style have to do is stand here and take in the 360-degree found in other parts of the views, and you know why.” house.
Charlottesville 434-220-6092 Christiansburg 540-382-7088 Roanoke 540-366-1748 Greensboro 336-275-8402
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21
SHORELINES | LAKE HOMES
The Goodes’ formal dining room cascades with light and provides views of Smith Mountain.
Infused wIth the 21st century
The now 4,000-squarefoot home of Jeff and Mary Beth Goode sits prominently near White House corner. The same house is shown at right in 1950.
COURTESy Of THE GOOdE fAMILy
22 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
In 2007, Jeff and wife Mary Beth renovated the kitchen, expanding it into the covered back porch. A much bigger addition took place in 2011: 2,600 square feet were added to the original cottage, transforming the historic farmhouse into the jaw-dropping, sky-lit, open-planned 4,000 square feet of modern comfort and fashion. The old and the new were blended by friend and architect Carlton Abbott, whose father was the lead architect for the Blue Ridge Parkway. One striking aspect of the home is the size of the windows. “It’s nice to look out on your land and see the horses and cows grazing,” said Jeff, who as an emergency room doctor can use a bit of serenity between shifts. And they see not only what is theirs but also the “V” of Smith Mountain Gap to the east and Cahas and Poor Mountains to the west, beyond the distant ball that is Westlake Towne Center’s water tower. The decorating inside the house is impressive. Mary Beth, who previously worked in banking, selected everything. There is interesting and inviting art, objects bought while on trips, beautiful photos, an in-the-wall aquarium and several “finds” from Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke. “We bought there before it was a TV show. Prices have since increased,” deadpanned Jeff, referring to “Salvage Dawgs,” Black Dog’s show that airs on the DIY Network. “But we still love to poke around there and see what’s available.”
2,600 square feet were added to the original cottage, transforming the historic farmhouse into the jaw-dropping, sky-lit, open-planned 4,000 square feet of modern comfort and fashion.
The original part of the house has a parlor, a hallway — which was the former dining room — a guest bedroom with a bath, a small bedroom made into a playroom with a chalkboard-painted accent wall, and the remodeled kitchen, which has an indoor window that looks out to Smith Mountain through the new dining room and family room a few steps below. Ceilings soar to the roof line, skylights flood the rooms with light and large windows frame the surrounding pastures, forests and distant peaks. Upstairs there is a guest bedroom, a bathroom and a bedroom for son Beckett in the original house. An open catwalk leads to the new section, which houses the master suite with bright airy windows and a modern bathroom with immodest full-length windows that overlook Smith Mountain Parkway. Dale Angle, the builder, “challenged us about that, but we figure people driving by are moving too fast to notice,” Jeff grinned.
The architect for the 2011 addition to the Goodes’ home was Carlton Abbott, whose father was lead architect for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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SHORELINES | LAKE HOMES
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT. Mary Beth (from left), Jeff, Norris and Betty Tuck Goode enjoy a warm day in the backyard within sight of a 100-year-old shed that has remained on the property. The tub in the master bathroom immodestly sits next to full-length windows that overlook Smith Mountain Parkway. This area of the Goode home marks where the original section of the home meets the addition.
Outside there is a pond created in 1950 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, founded in 1933 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program to help poor rural areas, and this part of Bedford County fit the bill. There’s a 100-year-old shed with its original tin roof that was built by Jeff’s great-grandfather. He is buried across the road in the family cemetery, which, Jeff said “is where I will be buried to solidify my roots to this land.” Outside there is also a 1944 barn, a fire pit, a pasture with ponies and horses. Recalling the egg-laying-business of the Goode Brothers, Jeff said, “I vividly remember side-stepping chickens and chicken poop in what is now my backyard.” In back there is a “smokehouse” — which is more of a storage shed, Jeff said. Like the original house, its yellow-pine exterior is so hard that it, too, refuses to hold paint for more than a couple of years, and it continually looks weathered. It is now Jeff’s quiet escape/reflection/thinking room, with space to house medical books and memorabilia. There is an 24 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
elegant walnut desk made by friend and artisan Dave Jackson and a microscope that Jeff hopes will intrigue his son into a scientific career. As an ER doctor, Jeff has a crazy schedule, but he still found time to paint the entire brick exterior of the enlarged house and treasures his “tractor time” — when he’s taking care of the chores that a large farm property demands. Growing up in this area, before the creation of the lake, Jeff has fond memories of the little country stores that dotted the landscape. With his parents living close by and other relatives still on nearby farms, he has a great sense of family. “My deep connection to history, the history of my family, my farming roots and my desire to work the land that my father’s father’s father worked, pulses through me. My roots and a sense of commitment to what my fathers started drive me. It is why I wake up every day,” he said. “I treasure the connection to my heritage. Beckett is the fourth generation that’s enjoyed this land. I hope he will want to continue the legacy.”
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ExcElling at
acceleration Teenager Matthew Richuk is accelerating into the sport of watercross — winning national titles and gaining savvy. S P
26 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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SHOrELINES | ON THE wATEr
A Matthew Richuk, a 15-year-old who spends summers with his family at SML, is making a name for himself in the world of watercross. He rides a 90 hp 2008 Kawasaki SXR 800 that includes a few allowable modifications for improved acceleration.
boat ride along Smith Mountain Lake’s shorelines makes it clear: personal watercraft are popular summer fun vessels for lakers. At least one and often two of these sporty, nimble speedsters await riders at countless lakefront properties; some docks are home to three or more. And while adults certainly enjoy PWC riding as a hassle-free, wind-in-the-face means of cruising the shorelines or getting to a lake destination in a hurry, it’s typically the younger generation that absolutely craves the spray and wake-thumping rush that PWC rides offer. That’s especially true for Matthew Richuk, a 15-year-old freshman at Ledford High School near High Point, North Carolina, who spends summers with his family at SML. But in Richuk’s case, the time aboard isn’t aimless joy-riding, nor is it spent comfortably straddling a cushy two or three-person couch seat. Matthew rides the single-person, stand-up variety, reminiscent of the early days of Jet Skiing — when stability, turning and wave-busting abilities had more to do with rider skill than the vessel’s design. His current machine is a 90 hp 2008 Kawasaki SXR 800 with a few allowable modifications for improved acceleration, which, in the world of Pro Watercross racing, is a crucial factor. “Matthew is winning against racers with more experience and faster machines by using a poised, disciplined approach,” said Bill Haig, a 24-year
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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SHORELINES | ON THE wATER
Last summer, Matthew Richuk scored a pair of first place finishes in Junior Ski Stock 13-15 Year and Junior Ski Ltd. divisions at the National Watercross Championships in Charleston, West Virginia. It was just his third organized racing outing.
Matthew Richuk had barely practiced and never raced until a year and a half ago. But according to his dad, Phil, Matthew took to the sport naturally — and with great enthusiasm.
veteran of professional Jet Ski riding who, as tour director for Pro Watercross, has mentored dozens of kids hoping to get competitive in the sport. Said Haig: “Matthew rides smart, with natural instincts, talent and athleticism.” Growing up in North Carolina and Virginia — both states that require PWC operators to be 14 or older — Richuk had barely practiced and never raced until a year and a half ago. But according to his dad, Phil, Matthew took to the sport naturally — and with great enthusiasm. “He shares his brothers’ love for all water sports and is a good skier, barefooter and wakeboarder,” Phil Richuk said. “But once he got a taste of Jet Skiing’s competitive dimension — well, that’s where the real passion was evident.” “I loved it instantly,” Matthew said. “It’s taken over much of my water time at SML.” Family friend Haig, who the senior Richuk describes as “the most seasoned pro ski rider on the planet,” has long ridden at his home on Jordan Lake in North Carolina and formed the Hurricane Racing Team to support young riders. As the newest member of that team, Matthew raced at
28 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
events in Panama City and Pensacola, Florida, and in Georgia and West Virginia in 2015. Despite being relatively unseasoned, he won Charleston’s national Junior Stock Ski competition in September — and subsequently his division’s World Finals in Naples, Florida. That was Matthew’s first competition in ocean waves, which were running more than 5 feet on race day. “Ocean riding is very tiring,” he said. “The combination of the surf and wakes from as many as 18 skis really bangs you around.” A heat is typically six times around a marked rectangular course, with a short slalom section thrown in for extra challenge. Each lap takes about a minute and 20 seconds. In his age category, Matthew might ride a half-dozen heats on a given race day. “Each heat is a workout and a half,” Phil Richuk says, “and it takes practice to build strength and endurance. He’s superb at leaning way off the ski as he flies around buoys — that’s one way he picks up time. He’s also very fast off the start line, which lets him ride in cleaner (i.e., calmer) water toward the front of the pack. “Bill [Haig] hauls the Hurricane Performance
trailer to events,” Phil Richuk explains, “transporting eight team machines and tools and parts to keep them running. The trailer also serves as the garage and maintenance shed.” The elder Richuk also travels to the races, helping with logistics, cheering on his son and covering expenses. Additional sponsor support comes from
Pro Watercross enthusiast Steve Booth of STB Enterprises in Blacksburg. “I see Pro Watercross as a great developmental activity,” Phil Richuk says. “Weekend practices, whether on SML or at Haig’s place on Jordan Lake, have to be disciplined; he’s not just out cruising around. He’s had to quickly learn strategy, good
COURTESY PHOTO
Matthew Richuk (second from left) is joined by Steve Booth (from left), sponsor STB Enterprises in Blacksburg, father Phil Richuk and Bill “Hurricane” Haig, a professional rider and team owner of Hurricane Racing.
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SHORELINES | ON THE WATER
“Watercross is a good spectator sport,” said Jet Ski veteran Bill Haig. “Fast, noisy, lots of spills and some machine-to-machine contact.” sportsmanship, a never-give-up determination and the ability to maturely interact with adults — race officials, other riders’ parents and fans.” Besides water sports, Matthew also likes snowboarding and golf. His best school subjects are math and science, and he mentions marine biology as a potential career path. He enjoys meeting riders from around the U.S. and beyond. “At the Worlds, I hung out with Europeans and Australians,” he said. And according to his dad, Matthew is beginning to learn the financial and promotional side of his sport. His school administrators and teachers, convinced that there are educational benefits to his participation in Pro Watercross, are accommodating the absences that attending distant weekend competitions require.
Readers who wish to see Matthew and other Pro Watercross riders in action can find competition highlights at www.prowatercross.com and catch next season’s races televised by CBS, which has just picked up Pro Watercross and, Phil Richuk says, will likely popularize this sport as they did with their broadcasts of snowmobile racing over the past few years.” “Watercross is a good spectator sport,” Haig adds. “Fast, noisy, lots of spills and some machine-tomachine contact.” And how does Matthew’s mother, Karen, feel about having her teen out there on the race course? “I worry,” she says. “Any mom would. They wear helmets, life jackets, shoes and gloves when they race, but still … it’s unnerving.
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Beautifully Decorated Cottage at Contentment Island 5 Br’s, 3 1/2 Baths, Covered Dock, 2 Car Garage ML #823326 $519,900.
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Immaculate Maintenance Free Brick Home, 4BRs, 4BAs, Flat Lot. $819,900, MLS #809827.
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Bridgewater Bay Lakefront Condo with Full Basement and Covered Dock. $379,900, MLS# 817483.
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32 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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16451 Booker T. Washington Hwy, Moneta, VA 24121 incredible views of smith mountain gorgeous smart home in lake community Enjoy living in this Incredible Villa w/ 2950 Sq. Ft and upgrades galore. Gorgeous Smart Home in Lake Community. When you walk through the front door, you are immediately drawn to the mountain view that is so breathtaking! This spacious 3 bedroom, 2 bath home offers main level living w/Custom cabinets w/ granite countertops, 10’ ceilings, Great Room w/stone fireplace, Awesome master suite with trey ceiling & large walk-in closet w/ custom closet organizers and huge master bath, Formal Dining Room, dining area & breakfast bar. Surround Sound throughout the whole house, 2 x 6 Outside Walls, Pella Windows, Central Vac, Alarm System, Control the Heat, Alarm, Lights & More right from your computer! New roof in 2012. Deeded covered dock with remote. Screened porch w/ solar consecratory glass overlooking the lake & mountain. Priced at $649,900.
lake home w/ point lot, 549’ of wf w/ 2 car garage & plus 30’ x 32’ garage!
Spacious lake home with approx. 3655 sq. ft., 3 bedrooms, office, 3 1/2 baths and beautiful point lot with 549’ of waterfront and great views! Great room w/ cathedral ceiling, wood floors & fireplace, sunroom, family room w/ built in 55” TV, game room, 2 car garage attached to home and a huge 30’ x 32’ detached garage w/ lift, main level living, new roof, double slip boathouse. $649,900.
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The perfect lake home for entertaining w/ approx. 4786 sq. ft., 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, open great room with cathedral ceiling, wetbar & fireplace, 2 master suites, family room w/ fireplace, screened porch, double carport, 2 car garage, paved drive, the boat dock has 3 covered slips (one is for a houseboat), gazebo, cabana and Florida room. $949,000, MLS #807768.
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Beautiful lakefront contemporary log home built in 2011. When you walk in the front door, you are drawn to the gorgeous main channel view. Very spacious w/ approx. 3,300 sq. ft., 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, awesome gourmet kitchen w/ granite countertops, main level living, huge double decks, paved driveway, great room w/ cathedral ceiling and stone fireplace, covered boathouse and extra storage building. $679,900, MLS# 817484.
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Impressive brick home, remodeled very nicely with granite countertops, carpet, appliances, etc. Spacious Kitchen! w/ lots of cabinets, 4 bedrooms & 2 1/2 baths. Nice walk-in closet and garden tub, Two brick fireplaces. Dining room and large rec room area, Lots of decking and porches, Covered boathouse and lift, 2 car garage. Priced at only $305,000. MLS# 805657.
Enjoy the peace and privacy of this lake home with 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths, great room w/ fireplace, bamboo flooring & cathedral ceiling, gentle lot w/ 110’ of waterfront, Main level living. $599,900, MLS #804812.
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M rinas 2016 sml guide
Bay Roc Marina
8360 Hardy Road, Hardy
(540) 890-2194 bayroc-marina.com
R87
B4
Check website
Bayside Marina & Yacht Club
500 Shoreline Circle, Moneta
(540) 721-3664 baysidemarinasml.com
R26
E8
Mon-Fri 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., Sat 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Sun 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Blackwater Marina & Grill
2200 Old Salem School Road, Union Hall
(540) 576-4486 On Facebook
B37
I8
Open daily at 9 a.m.
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Bridgewater Marina & Boat Rentals
16410 Booker T. Washington Hwy., Moneta
(540) 721-1639 bwmarina.com
R28
C8
Sun-Thurs 8 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri-Sat 8 a.m.-11 p.m.
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Captain’s Quarters
16525 Booker T. Washington Hwy., Moneta
(540) 721-1175 smithmountainlakeboats.com
R28
C8
Daily 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
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Craddock Creek Marina
15826 Smith Mountain Lake Pkwy., Huddleston
(540) 297-7325 craddockcreekmarina.com
C2
F11
Private facility
Crazy Horse Marina
400 Crazy Horse Road, Moneta
(540) 719-0620 crazyhorse-marina.com
B10
F10
Fri- Sun 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Mon-Thurs 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
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Crystal Shores Marina
1617 Crystal Shores Drive, Moneta
(540) 297-1888 crystalshoresmarinaresort.com
Between R26 and R28
C9
Open daily; office hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
•
Gills Creek Marina & Lodge
790 Fox Chase Road, Wirtz
(540) 721-2451 gillscreekmarina.com
G2
G9
Mon-Thurs 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Fri-Sun 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
Halesford Harbour Marina and Boat Rentals
1043 Campers Paradise Trail, Moneta
(540) 297-9000 halesfordharbour.com hfhboats.com
Between R28 and R30
C8
Daily 8 a.m.-7 p.m.
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ABC
PUBLIC RESTROOMS BOAT RENTALS PUMP-OUT STATION BAIT AND TACKLE BOAT STORAGE BOAT REPAIRS AND SERVICE BOAT RAMP DINING ENTERTAINMENT
IN-SEASON HOURS
MAP ID (PAGES ZYZYZ)
CHANNEL MARKER
PHONE/ WEBSITE
ADDRESS
BUSINESS NAME
BRITTANY GREESON
Harpoon Marine Service
12595 Hardy Road, Hardy
540-537-6272 harpoon-marine.com
-
A3
Call for service hours
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Hughes Marine Service
3815 U.S. 29 North, Danville
(434) 836-0052 hughesmarineservice.com
-
-
Call for service hours
•
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Lake Haven Marina
15844 Smith Mountain Lake Pkwy., Huddleston
(540) 297-7347
C1
F12
Open daily; call for hours
•
Lakeside Marina
629 Lakeside Road, Penhook
(434) 927-5380 On Facebook
B1
H11
Varies; call for hours
•
Lumpkins Marina
19 Lumpkin Drive, Penhook
(434) 927-5150
B1
H11
Daily 8 a.m.-7 p.m.
•
Magnum Boating Inc. at Indian Pointe Marina
2031 Morewood Road, Hardy
(540) 719-2427 magnumboating.com
R37
D7
Mon-Sat 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
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Mitchell’s Point Marina
3553 Trading Post Road, Huddleston
(540) 484-3980 mitchellspoint.com
C3
F12
Daily 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
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Moorman’s Marina
1633 Moorman Road, Goodview
540-890-1656
R77
A4
Open daily; call for hours
Parkway Marina
16918 Smith Mountain Lake Pkwy., Huddleston
(540) 297-4412 parkwaymarina.com
Between R6 and R8
G11
Sun-Thurs 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Fri-Sat 8 a.m.-7 p.m.
Pelican Point Yacht Club
60 Marina Point Lane, Union Hall
(540) 576-2019 pelicanpointyachtclub.com
B9
G10
Call for service hours
Smith Mountain Dock & Lodge
300 Locust Lane, Penhook
(540) 565-0222 On Facebook.com
R6
G11
Daily 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
•
Virginia Dare Cruises & Marina
3619 Airport Road, Moneta
(540) 297-7100 vadarecruises.com
R21
E10
Mon-Sun 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
•
Waterwheel Marina
1229 Waterwheel Drive Office: 193 Riverbay Drive, Moneta
(540) 721-5668 waterwheelsml.com
R28
C8
Open daily; call for hours
•
•
Webster Marine Center
1185 Mills Road, Moneta
(540) 297-5228 webstermarine.com
R28
C8
Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
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Virginia Craft Brew at its Finest
Handcrafted Signature Award-Winning Lagers And Ales On Tap PLUS 6-Packs And Growlers To-Go!
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www.SunkenCityBeer.com SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
37
SHORELINES | PROFILE
Helping hand A Smith Mountain Lake woman has spent the better part of her life making life better for refugees coming to the area.
38 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
S
t o r y
b y
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i p p S
“I
will help you until you tell me you don’t need help anymore.” Marcelle Melki-Ross has spent most of her life assisting refugees who want to live in the Roanoke and Smith Mountain Lake areas. Families flee their native countries in fear and hope for a better life in the United States. Many don’t speak English, but all rely on the kindness of strangers. It’s emotional for Melki-Ross to think about her work, about what some of these refugees have gone through and about what they’ve established in their new homeland. “People would be shocked at how many people in this area are struggling to become citizens and get their green cards,” Melki-Ross, a lake resident, said. “Good people who want the help but just don’t know who to ask.” Melki-Ross, who was born in Lebanon and moved to the U.S. when she was 1 year old, began working with immigrants through the Roman Catholic Church’s local refugee office. She had family members who worked as translators with the office, and they helped to get her involved while she was still in high school. Today, she maintains ties to that office, which is part of Commonwealth Catholic Charities, but she primarily works on her own helping families. Her efforts include helping refugees apply for visas, filing paperwork for Social Security numbers and arranging health care. Verifying information — such as how names are transliterated into English — is important. That consistency helps to build credit and stave off any accusations of fraud. Most of all, though, Melki-Ross helps to navigate the new world that refugees find themselves in. “We try to make sure that we have everything set up before they’re here or shortly after they get here,” she said. “We want to make sure they have schools they can go to; we want to make sure they have health care; we want to make sure that their name is on their electric bill. There’s a lot of paperwork involved.”
Syrian refugees, fleeing a civil war in their home country, have been in the news in recent years. But refugees entering the Roanoke and Smith Mountain Lake regions have come from a variety of violence-torn regions. THE ASSOCIATEd PrESS
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
39
SHORELINES | PROFILE
The Coptic Christian family was fleeing some of the worst violence against their religion in its 2,000-year-long history. In recent years, Christians in Egypt have been killed by extremists, and their churches have been gutted or destroyed.
Melki-Ross, who speaks three languages, has been working with an Egyptian family for the past year and a half. The Coptic Christian family was fleeing some of the worst violence against their religion in its 2,000-year-long history. In recent years, Christians in Egypt have been killed by extremists, and their churches have been gutted or destroyed. The patriarch of the family, Nasim, and his family had faced persecution, something that Melki-Ross describes as weighing heavy on Nasim’s heart. “A lot of people who come here are leaving their country because they don’t feel safe anymore,” Melki-Ross said. “It’s so sad to hear the stories of what even their little kids are seeing. You don’t want that burned in their minds. You want to give them something that’s going to make them feel like they can grow and feel accomplished.” Nasim arrived in the U.S. first, initially working at what was then Michael’s Restaurant on the Bedford County side of the Hales Ford Bridge. That restaurant was owned by a cousin of Melki-Ross, and she and Nasim were connected after Nasim said he wanted to get the paperwork in order to bring his family with him. Melki-Ross went to work on his case. Nasim eventually began working for a large company and
settled in Vinton. Once his family’s documents were complete, there were given the green light to join him. Nasim was united with his wife and three kids this past October. Many people along the way helped the Egyptian family immigrate to the U.S., and many more are continuing to assist. “People are very generous in helping,” MelkiRoss said. “As long as you’re kind to them and they know you’re trying to do a good deed, they’re willing to help.” Among those who Melki-Ross said have been particularly hands-on in many refugees’ transitions
A lifelong resident of the beautif
HOW TO DONATE If you want to help refugee families in the area, Marcelle Melki-Ross recommends donating goods or money to Commonwealth Catholic Charities’ Refugee and Immigration Services or to the Salvation Army.
MLS#806715, $400,000, Over 7 Private
COMMONWEALTH CATHOLIC CHARITIES: REFUGEE AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES Address: 820 Campbell Ave S.W., Roanoke, VA 24016 Phone: (540) 342-7561
MLS#807719, $595,000, Dream Home L
THE SALVATION ARMY Address: 724 Dale Ave S.E., Roanoke, VA 24013 Phone: (540) 343-5335
40 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
COURTESY OF MARCELLE MELKI-ROSS
This Egyptian refugee family was united in the U.S. this past October. They currently live in Vinton.
Lifelong Lifelong SML SML Resident Resident • Top • Top100 100Realtor Realtor Specializing Specializing in fine homes, in fine homes, golf communities, golf communities, waterfront waterfront properties, properties, townhomes townhomes&&condos. condos.
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SHORELINES | PROFILE
to their new communities are the schools. Schools have helped get children placed in the appropriate grade. Nasim’s kids didn’t read or speak English, and the teachers have been forthcoming with additional guidance. The teachers “have been wonderful,” Melki-Ross said. “They have been very patient, they’ve been kind, they’ve been so helpful in integrating these children into the school system, making them feel at home and not like a stranger. It’s been amazing.” Melki-Ross’ work is all volunteer, something she does around her full-time job at Phil Hager Insurance Agency. It’s also donation-driven. She receives money from friends and family, as well as from the Roanoke area’s Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church and St. Philoxenus of Mabug Syriac Orthodox Church. A lot money comes out of her own pocket. She also asks friends if they have furniture they don’t need or clothes that aren’t being used, all of which can be given directly to refugee families. “People don’t realize that little things like clothing and furniture, it makes a big difference because this is money out of their pockets that they would have to spend to furnish their places,” she said. Melki-Ross also has rental properties in Roanoke, most of which are occupied by refugees.
“You want to make sure that you’re placing these people in an area where they are going to be welcomed,” she said. “You want make sure they’re somewhere where they’re not going to be taken advantage of and that people will see them as an asset and not a victim.” Melki-Ross has worked with more than 100 families in her lifetime, and she continues to stay in contact with many. So many of the families, she said, bring with them higher education degrees or trade skills — as well as a strong work ethic. The refugees benefit, as do the communities they relocate to. “Anybody who is apprehensive about any foreigners coming to this country needs to realize that we’re all immigrants, the country was built on immigrants, and we would not be anywhere without these people,” she said. “They’re the ones who laid the foundation for this country, and we will benefit from them so much. And, it’s important to help others. You can’t say you’re a good person if you’re not helping your neighbor or someone who wants to be your neighbor.” Melki-Ross notes that she will work with anyone, as long as they follow the rules and the law and don’t try to take advantage of the system. “It’s my nature,” she said. “If you need help, then I’m going to help you.”
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Winter conditions and strict border guidelines have reduced the numbers of refugees traveling toward wealthy nations, but thousands are still braving both the freezing temperatures and mounting anti-immigrant sentiments. 42 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
The Smith Mountain Lake Specialist.
Glenda McDaniel
TheLakeSpecialist.com • 540-797-2247 • glendamcd@aol.com See all of these featured properties & more: www.GlendaMcDaniel.com
Glenda McDaniel
Top Lake Agent for Long & Foster
Steven McDaniel, Realtor
Beautiful Lakefront Lot with Super Double Slip Dock
Fantastic Waterfront Condo for $299,200
Adorable Lake Home with Great Dock
Gorgeous Lake Home on 2.50 Acres
Stunning Custom Craftstyle Lake Home
Beautiful Custom Lake Home with Dock
Gorgeous Wide Water Views, Sunroom with Huge Windows and Heated floors Gourmet kitchen with Gas Cooktop, Tiered Island, Quartz Counters, Covered Dock MLS 819580
Lots of Room for Family and Friends with 5,373 Square Ft 3 Master Suites, Gourmet Kitchen with Granite Counters Hardwood Floors, Family Room plus 2 additional guest rooms Covered Boatdock with Long Lake Views MLS 821894
Immaculate Custom Lakefront Home
Affordable Lake Living for $397,500
Large Storage Cabana, Two Lifts, Deep water with 170’ of gentle riprapped shoreline, Wide Water views, Community of Custom Homes, 3 Bedroom drainfields Installed MLS 823963
Includes covered dock and jet ski lift. Membership to The Waterfront Golf and Country Club Available. Full Length Covered Deck, Great Room with Fireplace, FURNISHED MLS 819633
308’ of Shoreline, Large Double slip dock, New Customized Kitchen with Granite Counters and Newly renovated baths, Towering Windows in Great Rm, Dual Sized Fireplace. MLS 823916
Nestled on a 1.97 Acres, New Kitchen Florida Room, Two Screen Porches Double Garage, Large Sundeck,Large Family room and plenty of storage MLS 821821 ONLY $497,000
3.67 Acres and 120’ of shoreline. Beautiful Great Room with Hardwood Floors, Great Kitchen w/ Granite Counter Tops, Approx 4000 Sq Ft Finished, Large Boatdock MLS 821872
Great Location, Gentle Lot, Screen Porch, Stone Fireplace, Entry Level Master Bedroom, Dock, Large Deck Community pool & tennis. MLS 820126
Charming Like New Lake $165,000 Fantastic Opportunity For Access Only $450,000 True One Level Living, Includes 1 year Community Boatdock Lease. Beautiful Views nestled against the First Fairway Private Golf, Community Pools, Tennis. MLS 824301
Contact Glenda McDaniel Today To Get More Property Details:
www.GlendaMcDaniel.com • www.TheLakeSpecialist.com
DIAL 1-540-797-2247 or email glendamcd@aol.com Licensed in the state of Virginia
44 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
MOUNTAIN LAKE, VA SMITH
MAKE “SOMEDAY” TODAY!
Scan This QR Code To Go To My Listings: Get Up-To-Date Info on New, Reduced, Foreclosed & Sold Lake Properties. Simply Send Me An Email and Ask For:
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The Smith Mountain Lake Specialist.
Glenda McDaniel
TheLakeSpecialist.com • 540-797-2247 • glendamcd@aol.com See all of these featured properties & more: www.GlendaMcDaniel.com NEW “Cottages Style” Homes
Glenda McDaniel
Top Lake Agent for Long & Foster
Steven McDaniel, Realtor
Lakefront Home with Party Dock $539,900
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Master Suite plus 3 additional guest rooms Family Room and Great Room,Entertainment Kitchen, Very gentle Lot MLS 822040
STARTING AT $349K!
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Septic and water installed $295,000 MLS 822711
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Only $150,000 SUPER BUY MLS 820956
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19 Waterfront Acres & 361’ of Shore. Great Location, Lots of Potential. Gentle Topography MLS 817260 $525,000
Contact Glenda McDaniel Today To Get More Property Details:
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DIAL 1-540-797-2247 or email glendamcd@aol.com Licensed in the state of Virginia
Covered Dock, Sandy beach area, Sunroom and Large Deck, Beautiful wide water views Additional Log Structure 275’ of Shoreline. MLS 824567
MOUNTAIN LAKE, VA SMITH
MAKE “SOMEDAY” TODAY!
Great for your Weekend getaway, Rental Investment or Full Time Lake Living. Large Sunroom, Covered Boatdock, Custom Paver Patio and Firepit, Dbl. Garage $395,000 MLS 821823
Nestled in the woods with a beautiful open design, lots of light from the architectural windows, Great Room with Stone Fireplace. MLS 823785
Scan This QR Code To Go To My Listings: Get Up-To-Date Info on New, Reduced, Foreclosed & Sold Lake Properties. Simply Send Me An Email and Ask For:
“THE SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE REPORT”
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45
The Smith Mountain Lake Specialist.
Glenda McDaniel
TheLakeSpecialist.com • 540-797-2247 • glendamcd@aol.com See all of these featured properties & more: www.GlendaMcDaniel.com Spacious Lakefront Home
Large Country Kitchen with Breakfast Nook Huge Great Room with lots of windows and Open Dining area, Entry Level Master Suite Family room, Covered Dock $599,950 REDUCED 808255
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One Level Living, Great Rm, Bella Wood Floors, Large fenced lot, Screened Porch, Family Rm, 3 Bedrooms, 2 1/2 Baths, Double Garage MLS 806364
Stunning Lakefront Home on Point Lot 232’ WF
Glenda McDaniel
Top Lake Agent for Long & Foster
Steven McDaniel, Realtor
Adorable Lakefront Home Large Party Deck Boatdock $639,500 Entry level Master suite. Towering Fireplace in Living Rm, 3 guest rooms Family Room 3 1/2 baths, Dining Rm MLS 821820 $639,000
Custom Lakefront Townhome with Dock
Beautifully designed, Great Room with Fireplace, Granite counter tops in Kitchen, Entry Level Master Suite, Covered Porch, Family rm with Bar, Boatdock w/ Touchless Cover, Garage Common Pool & Tennis. MLS 818445
Stunning Contemporary 20 Acres Lake Home on Two Lots foron$399,500 Gorgeous views and nestled in the trees Completely private, Huge Great Room w/Fireplace, Entry Level Master Suite, Screened Porch, 3 Car Garage. MLS 824136
Open Design w/ 4300 Sq Ft. Great Room w/Fireplace, Gourmet Kitchen with New SS appliances, Large Sunroom, Covered Boatdock, Family Room, $769,500 MLS 817550
Beautiful Waterfront Townhome $289,500
Party Deck Boatdock, 3 Bedrooms and 3 baths, Renovated kitchen with SS Appliances and Granite Counters MLS 822907
Over 600’ of Waterfront Plus 6 Car Garage
Bring Your Cars, Boats and More to this Lake Estate, Huge Detached 6 Car Garage/Shop with Office & full bath, Point Lot with over 600’ of Gentle Lakefront, Triple Lift Dock, Charming Lake Home with Two Kitchens, 2 Stone Fireplaces, MLS 819191
Adorable Lake Home ONLY $549,500
New Roof, New Deck, Freshly painted, Great Lot with Mountain Views, Covered, Dock, Great Room with Fireplace, Family, Room with Fireplace, 4 bedroom design MLS 814748 $549,500
Charming Waterfront Home $495,000
Beautiful views, Party Deck Boatdock, Great Rm with Hardwood Floors and Fireplace, 3 bed 3 baths, Family Rm. MLS 822906
Waterfront Lot With Dock Gorgeous Views $189,500 MLS 822770
Fantastic Lake Lot with Boatdock
Gentle slope, septic installed and well, Beautiful Lake and Mountain Views, Covered Boatdock with Lift. MLS 809482
Contact Glenda McDaniel Today To Get More Property Details:
www.GlendaMcDaniel.com • www.TheLakeSpecialist.com
DIAL 1-540-797-2247 or email glendamcd@aol.com Licensed in the state of Virginia
46 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
MOUNTAIN LAKE, VA SMITH
MAKE “SOMEDAY” TODAY!
Scan This QR Code To Go To My Listings: Get Up-To-Date Info on New, Reduced, Foreclosed & Sold Lake Properties. Simply Send Me An Email and Ask For:
“THE SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE REPORT”
th
ANNIVERSARY
{ IN THIS SECTION } 48:
Conception of the dam dates before the 1960s
56:
The dam was a monumental undertaking
64:
Profile of the construction supervisor
70:
The technical workings of the dam
78:
Graves and homes were relocated REFLECTIONS: 82: Bill Shires 86: Dealie Lovell 90: Judge William Alexander
COURTESY OF APPALACHIAN POWER CO.
dawn SML THE
of
In the first of a four-part historical series, Smith Mountain Laker magazine journeys through the concept and construction phases of the Smith Mountain Project and how Appalachian Power Co.’s pump-storage facility ultimately created renewable energy and a community of fun and fellowship in the heart of Virginia.
92: Art Campbell 96:
Evolution of the village of Moneta
103: Historical photos PHOTOGRAPHY The photographers listed below helped in telling an important part of Smith Mountain Lake history. While there are other photographers who, because of incomplete or imprecise records, could not be identified, the majority of the historical images in this issue have been attributed with accuracy and transparency in mind. John Cook Deyerle Studios Warren W. Gilbert Howard Hammersley Jr.
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
47
{ Lake history | construction }
foundations SML The
of
A detailed and delicate dance through history brought about the creation of the lake. By Kathryn Orth
48 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
THE ROANOKE TIMES
A team of officials surveys the future site of Smith Mountain Dam in 1960, the year that the Smith Mountain Project began construction on the border of Bedford and Pittsylvania counties. Inset is a projected map of the lake published Aug. 1, 1959, in The Roanoke Times.
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
49
{ Lake history | Community }
The rural nature of the area around Smith Mountain is apparent in the map from 1951 (left), only to be replaced with the massive SML by 1967 (right).
MApS COURTESy Of THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURvEy
T
he foundation for the dam that today holds back Smith Mountain Lake was laid more than 500 million years ago. In the late Pre-Cambrian era, long before the appearance of dinosaurs, fish, land plants and even the formation of the Appalachian Mountains, geologic forces created a base of mica schist rock resistant to chemical erosion, said James Beard, curator of geology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. “Smith Mountain is held up by a unit of rock called the Candler Formation,” Beard said. “The rest of the rock around it erodes, but it holds up.” The Candler Formation, named after Candlers Mountain near Lynchburg, stretches from there southward across the Piedmont to Turkeycock Mountain on the border of Franklin and Henry counties. The mica schist rock layer was pushed to the surface when the Appalachian Mountains formed millions of years later, Beard said. While nearby land areas gradually broke down into the rolling hills and red clay of Southside Virginia, the Candler Formation protected Smith Mountain, which rises 1,000 feet
50 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
above the surrounding countryside. Other such rock layers are found around the world, but their existence is not always so obvious. “It happens in this particular case to stick out from the surrounding countryside through erosion,” Beard said. And millions of years later, the Roanoke River began to dig away at the mountain, creating the gap where the dam now stands. Mica schist, although chemically inert, can be worn away by water. “The rock is a lot older than the river, so the gap itself is not nearly as old as the rock,” Beard said. It may have taken the river a few hundred thousand years to cut its path eastward through the mountain, he said. By the late 1600s, European-American explorers and settlers had penetrated the area around Smith Mountain, often traveling along the Roanoke River as they headed west. John Lederer, a German physician, was the first known explorer to write about the area near Smith Mountain. He visited a Saponi Indian town near present-day Leesville Lake, as he passed through the area in June 1670 on one of three expeditions
By the time brothers Daniel and Gideon Smith arrived in 1740 and gave the mountain their name, most of the Saponi and Tutelo Indian villages in the area had been abandoned ...
attempting to cross the Blue Ridge in search of a route to the Indian Ocean. Lederer considered the Blue Ridge Mountains largely impassable, but he explored the region east of the mountains from Northern Virginia into the Carolinas. His descriptions, in Latin, of the landscapes and geography he found were groundbreaking, if not always completely accurate, and were important sources for early maps. A year later, in 1671, a group of fur traders came closer to reaching Lederer’s goal. Searching for the point where rivers would flow west toward the riches of the Pacific, the Batts-Fallam Expedition followed the Roanoke River through the Gap of Smith Mountain, past the salt licks of the Roanoke Valley and west to find the New River, a part of the Ohio River watershed. By the time brothers Daniel and Gideon Smith arrived in 1740 and gave the mountain their name,
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most of the Saponi and Tutelo Indian villages in the area had been abandoned, their inhabitants pushed south into North Carolina by the pressure of advancing white settlement and the earlier attacks of warring Iroquois from the north, who had long carried out raids on rival tribes along the Warrior Path. A family history website lists Gideon Smith and his brother among Quakers from Pennsylvania who accepted Virginia’s invitation to settle its western reaches, with a promise that they would pay no property taxes for 10 years. The brothers patented large tracts of land around the mountain, in what was then Halifax County. The Smiths were long hunters, said Dr. Francis Amos, a retired Rocky Mount physician and avid historian. “They were guys who in October would pack up a couple of horses and their traps and trap all
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{ Lake history | Community }
Crews place concrete at the site of the Smith Mountain Project in the early 1960s.
cOURTESy Of AppALAcHIAN pOwER cO.
winter. [Long hunters] could make $1,000 for a winter, maybe even more, for their furs and hides,” Amos said. Early settlers valued the bottomland along the Roanoke River for its fertile soil, but at least one man saw something else in the Gap of Smith Mountain, Amos said. Thomas Levisy, a mineralogist, had bought a number of mineral deposits and mine sites around the area in the late 1700s, Amos said. Levisy thought the gap showed promise for the mining of iron, but the mine was never established. “He bought the Gap of Smith Mountain because of iron deposits. If he had just held on to it, his descendants might have had gold,” Amos said, referring to the eventual construction of Smith Mountain Dam. At the same time the Smith brothers and Levisy were farming and mining in the area that was later named for Benjamin Franklin, Franklin himself began conducting experiments with lightning and electricity in Pennsylvania. “Experiments and Observations
52 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
on Electricity,” a collection of letters sent to English botanist Peter Collinson, describes his attempts to harness electrical power. It is often considered the most important American scientific book of the 18th century. But Franklin was frustrated by his inability to develop practical uses for electricity. “Chagrined a little that we have hitherto been able to produce nothing in this way of use to mankind,” he wrote. He told Collinson that he proposed a picnic on the banks of the Schuykill River, where an electrical shock conducted by the river water would be used to heat spirits and kill a turkey, which would then be roasted over a fire lit by the “electrified bottle,” a Leyden jar that created sparks. It was to be more than 150 years before electricity became practical for homes and the need to produce it focused public attention on the Gap of Smith Mountain. The beginning of the 20th century saw Americans abandon their oil lamps and welcome electric light bulbs and radios into their homes, as hundreds of
small electric companies sprang up around the country. One of them was the Roanoke-Staunton River Power Co. In 1924, Roanoke-Staunton River Power took a hard look at the Gap of Smith Mountain, where the idea of a dam had first been proposed in 1906, and started to buy land. The company purchased 1,500 acres in Bedford County and 4,000 acres in Pittsylvania County and paid options on additional property. Frances Housman Dillon’s family had a farm along the Blackwater River near what is now the W.E. Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center. She remembers her father, Roy Housman, talking about the payments local farmers could receive to reserve their land for later sale. “My father told me that the power company was giving a dollar a year back in the ’30s,” she said. The Housman farm was eventually sold to make way for the lake. The site of the farmhouse is now under water, Dillon said. The road from idea to completion of the Smith Mountain Dam was anything but easy, however. It finally took a U.S. Supreme Court decision to pave the way for Appalachian Power Co. to build the dam as a private venture. Early studies by the Roanoke-Staunton River Power Co. did not find the building of a dam in the gap economically feasible after all, but studies by the Army Corps of Engineers recommended a series of 11 dams, to be federally funded, for flood control and hydroelectric development, and to create lakes for recreational use along the Roanoke River Basin. One of those dams was proposed for the Gap of Smith Mountain. However, in 1934 and 1944, the U.S. Congress failed to appropriate money for any part of the Roanoke River project. Finally, under pressure from the Roanoke River Basin Association, and with the support of the Virginia Electric Power Co., which had previously opposed the project, Congress funded the construction of the John H. Kerr Dam by the Corps of Engineers, forming Buggs Island Lake in Mecklenburg County on the Virginia-North Carolina border. This victory for the Kerr Dam, however, was at least a temporary defeat for the Smith Mountain Dam, which had not been funded. In 1949, representatives of Appalachian Power testified before a congressional committee that the company would undertake to build a run-ofriver Smith Mountain Dam if and when it became economically feasible. Virginia Electric Power had already applied for permits to construct the Roanoke Rapids and Gaston dams. In 1950, the Corps of Engineers held a public meeting in Moneta to discuss the project at Smith Mountain.
The meeting was fiery, wrote Bolling Lambeth, a Bedford County commonwealth’s attorney and the first president of the Roanoke River Basin Association. There were complaints about government competition with private enterprise and accusations of socialism from opponents of the dam. The Roanoke Times covered the meeting. “[R]ailway and coal representatives say that the Roanoke River project is a threat to their economic well-being. The hydro-electric development would have drastic effects on the consumption of coal which has become an important phase of their business,” the newspaper reported. One apparent supporter of the dam, referring to the president of the United Mine Workers of America, proclaimed, “Our people must not be shackled to the John L. Lewis whipping post.” An opponent of the dam argued that flooding the land would result in a significant loss of property taxes to the counties involved. The matter finally came to a vote. “It was noted,” wrote Lambeth in his pamphlet about the history of Roanoke River dams and lakes, “that there were many employees of the Appalachian Power Company attending the meeting, who naturally voted against the project which they considered a competition with their company.” The final vote at the meeting was 130 in favor of building Smith Mountain Dam, and 115 against the project. The vote did not in any way clear the way for construction of the dam, however. Two lawsuits
Philip Sporn, president of American Electric Power, shades his eyes as he looks high on July 15, 1960, to where the dam will be. THE ROANOKE TIMES
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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JOHN COOK | THE ROANOKE TIMES
On April 21, 1964, water had reached 145 feet deep and was still rising up the face of Smith Mountain Dam.
against the Federal Power Commission were making their way through the courts, one brought by the Department of the Interior, the other by Rural Electric Associations, to settle a number of questions related to jurisdiction over the permitting, construction and funding of hydroelectric projects on public rivers. The combined cases finally reached the Supreme Court. Writing the majority opinion in 1953, Justice Felix Frankfurter noted that Congress had laid the groundwork for the involvement of private companies in the building of dams on the Roanoke River as early as 1926, with a section of the Rivers and Harbors Act. “That document, a milestone in the development of integrated federal planning for the use of the Nation’s water resources, had recommended surveys of a large number of streams throughout the country, including the Roanoke River, ‘either for the preparation of plans for improvement to be undertaken by the Federal Government alone or in connection with private enterprise, or to secure adequate data to insure that waterway developments by private enterprise would fit into a general plan for the full utilization of the water resources of a stream,’” Justice Frankfurter wrote. Frankfurter warned however, that a principal responsibility of the Federal Power Commission 54 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
was to determine whether private construction was consistent with the public interest and was part of a comprehensive plan. “From the time that the importance of power sites was brought to public and congressional consciousness during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, the significant development has been the devising of a general power policy instead of ad hoc action by Congress, with all the difficulties and dangers of local pressures and logrolling to which such action gave rise,” he wrote. The warning in Justice William O. Douglas’s dissent was stronger: “The dam sites on this navigable stream are public property. The technical title to the bed of the stream may be in private hands. But those private interests have no compensable interest as against the control of the Federal Government. ... This is familiar law that emphasizes the public nature of the project which the Court now allows to be used for the aggrandizement of private power interests. This project is as much in the public domain as any of our national forests or national parks. It deals with assets belonging to all the people.” But the Supreme Court’s decision confirmed the FPC’s issuance of a permit to the Virginia Electric
Power Co. to construct the Roanoke Rapids and Gaston dams, thereby also giving Appalachian Power the opportunity to build Smith Mountain Dam. The following year, 1954, Appalachian Power bought the building site for the dam from the defunct Roanoke-Staunton River Power Co. and began acquiring more land where the lake would soon be, sometimes through eminent domain. “It was a basic upheaval for a lot of people in the area,” Amos said. “The early 1900s was still a farming economy, and we kept a lot of the same economy going for a long time. It had been very fertile, productive land along the Roanoke River.” Sometimes it was hard for families who had farmed in the same area for generations to envision any other use for the land, Amos said. “Some of them held on to their upland and later sold it, and a lot of them said, ‘If you are going to take my good land, you may as well take my upland, too.’ Of course, that turned out to be the best land,” Amos said. In 1960, more than 50 years after the first vision of a dam in the Gap of Smith Mountain, construction began. An era of drastic change and unimagined economic development had arrived.
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A decompression chamber, shown Dec. 15, 1965, on top of the dam served as home to a group of deep sea divers who worked 200 feet below the surface of the lake.
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{ LAKE HISTORY | CONSTRUCTION }
Dam hard to imagine, harder to create
BY MONICA DAVEY
This story was originally published May 3, 1991, in the Smith Mountain Lake section of The Roanoke Times. The author, Monica Davey, is currently Chicago bureau chief for The New York Times and is a faculty member with The Poynter Institute.
56 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
COURTESY OF APPALACHIAN POWER CO.
T
he first time Earle Snodgrass explored the land that would become Smith Mountain Lake was the fall of 1959. It was rough country where bobcats, bears and wild turkeys roamed. The bumpy, dirt roads often required fourwheel drive vehicles to get around. The Roanoke River was there, of course. But to Snodgrass, who had grown up near the Ohio River, that didn’t look like much. “We would have called that a creek,” Snodgrass said. The idea that the river, that land and a gap in a mountain could someday be transformed into a hydroelectric plant and a highly developed recreational lake was hard to imagine. Even for Snodgrass, who was Appalachian Power Company’s resident engineer on the dam project. “It was hard to envision that there’d be enough water,” Snodgrass said by phone from his Florida home. Until then, Snodgrass had worked building steam power plants. “It was new to me and to most of the company,” he said. “They hadn’t done a hydroelectric plant since Claytor,” a project that had been completed in 1939. But visions of a dam in the Gap at Smith Mountain had actually begun many years before Snodgrass was assigned to start the work in 1959.
COURTESY OF APPALACHIAN POWER CO.
Above. Smith Mountain Dam and the ensuing lake transformed Smith Mountain Gap and the entire region.
THE ROANOKE TIMES
At right. American Electric Power President Philip Sporn (left) talks in July 1960 with Earle T. Snodgrass, the supervising engineer of the Smith Mountain Project.
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The pump-back soluTion
The narrow gap the Roanoke River dug through Smith Mountain had attracted interest as a possible power generation site since the 1920s. During that decade, the Staunton River Power Company bought up land in Bedford and Pittsylvania counties with hopes of building a dam. Initial engineering studies, though, suggested that there wasn’t enough water flow there to cash in on such a project. Then in 1934, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers picked the Smith Mountain Gap as one of a bunch of dam sites to be built in the country. But no federal funds were put aside for the project and it didn’t happen. Years later, in 1954, Staunton River Power Co. sold its property to Appalachian Power Company. With that, plans for a dam began again. The question of whether there would be enough water to produce enough power to make the project cost-effective remained. But Apco had a solution for that: a pump-back system. They would build two dams — a big one at Smith Mountain Gap and a smaller one 17 miles downstream at Leesville. The larger dam would create Smith Mountain Lake from the Roanoke River, as well as the Blackwater River and several creeks and streams. During the day, water would flow through the two dams to create power, just as any conventional
THE ROANOKE TIMES
hydro-electric dam might operate. But most of the water released from Smith Mountain Lake would be caught behind the Leesville Dam in Leesville Lake. Then, during off hours — on nights and weekends when the need for electricity decreased — the pump-back system would go into action. Excess power from coal-burning steam plants, generated during off-hours, would be used to push the water trapped in Leesville Lake back through the Smith Mountain dam into Smith Mountain Lake. That way, when peak hours returned and more electricity was needed, the extra water would be waiting to flow back over the dam to create power. Building such a complex dam — 227 feet high and 816 feet wide — in that rustic terrain wouldn’t be easy, though.
modesT sTarT
Snodgrass and other Apco officials spent the fall of 1959 planning their attack and waiting for permission to start work. The Federal Power Commission issued Apco a 50-year license to build the project in April 1960 and the company and its South Bend, Ind., construction contractor started work a month later. Over the next few years, the number of employees working on the project in one capacity or another would range from a few hundred to more than 600 people. “When we first started, it was rough and rugged,”
At left. The number of employees who were part of the project at Smith Mountain ranged from a few hundred to more than 600 people. Below. Sollitt Construction Company, the contractor for the dam, used a railway in a moveable anchor system to handle large pieces of equipment.
COURTESy Of AppALACHIAN pOwER CO.
58 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
THE (LyNCHbUrg) NEwS & AdvANCE
Snodgrass said. They built an office right there at the gap, but initially had only one telephone — and that was in a box up on a tree. Anyone who needed to make a call but wasn’t on the right side of the river had to paddle across and climb up first. One of the first things that had to be done was to excavate some 250,000 yards of earth and rock to get the gap and its rocky cliffs to the right shape for a dam. That required setting off dynamite — which led to one of Snodgrass’ most terrifying moments on the project. “It was a very ticklish situation,” Snodgrass said. “Everybody suspected someone would get hurt.” For that reason, an inspector was always watching at the site. One night, Snodgrass recalled, he had just finished his supper at his Rocky Mount home when he got a call from an inspector who was substituting at the site that night. “We just put off a shot,” the inspector breathlessly told Snodgrass. “One man is dead and three are missing.”’
It was just the news Snodgrass had hoped never to receive. Snodgrass said he “almost passed out, of course,” and then advised the man to call for medical help. After 30 tense minutes of waiting for more news, Snodgrass got a call. It was the inspector again and he sounded sheepish. As it turned out, the inspector said, the man believed to be dead was only drunk and had
Building a road through the mountain was one of the preliminary jobs tackled by Appalachian Power Co. before actual work could be started on the power project.
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THE ROANOKE TIMES
Construction of the power turbines and power house below Smith Mountain Dam was well underway in 1963. The lake reached full pond on March 7, 1966.
passed out. The three “missing” had actually been recently reassigned to a new crew and were working elsewhere that night. There were no injuries at all. As long as the ambulance was there, the drunk man got a lift home, Snodgrass recalled, chuckling. During the project, there were actual fatalities, but not many. In the six years, two men died in accidents, Snodgrass said.
CHILL IN THE GAP
Other workers spent the initial months testing the condition of the gap’s rocks and soil, some of which were weak from years of water or ice damage. Portions had to be filled with a concrete mixture called grout to strengthen them before construction could start. Donald McNeil was one of the workers responsible for that. McNeil spent 19 months as an inspector for “grouting.” “I looked after pumping up this grout into the rocks under pressure,” said McNeil, who still works with Apco. McNeil’s strongest memory of the work was the weather. “I know it was awfully cold down there,” he said. “It was at least 10 degrees colder in that gap. The breeze would come through that hollow. …” He worked a lot of hours there, he said, and that earned him a nickname. “I didn’t have time, so I didn’t shave the whole time I worked there.” For that, his co-workers called McNeil “Fuzzy.” Once the gap was ready, actual construction of
60 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
the dam began. At about the same time, construction was starting downstream on the smaller Leesville dam. The actual pouring of concrete began June 1, 1961, at the Smith Mountain project. Workers built a concrete mixing tower right at the site, and trolleys full of the stuff could be dumped in the right spots with the help of a 1,558-foot cable strung across the gap, recalled Bill McClung, who handled public relations for Apco on the dam project. At times, the operator of the trolley — high in the gap — was working in total fog and had to be directed with bells and other signals. “It was a massive project for its day,” said McClung. Some 175,000 cubic yards of concrete were used in the dam. Surprisingly enough, under all that concrete, there was a lot of wood. “You wouldn’t believe the carpentry work on there,” McClung said.
MARCH 7, 1966: DONE
Then, in September 1963, the dam itself was closed and a lake started growing up in Bedford, Franklin and Pittsylvania counties. Thirty months later, the 20,600 acres were covered with water and Smith Mountain Lake was full. The dam had left 500 miles of shoreline when it was complete 25 years ago. It was officially finished at 5:03 a.m. March 7, 1966. The finishing touches were worked on for the next year or so, including a visiting center. To check on the dam and make sure it was doing
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what it was supposed to, Snodgrass used the help of professional divers and their television cameras. From dry land, he would watch what the divers filmed some 200 feet undewater. “I wasn’t about to go down there myself,” Snodgrass said. The divers didn’t have a simple time of it, either. Because of the depth of the water, divers risked suffering decompression sickness. To avoid that, they would spend the week before a dive inside a chamber at the top of the dam. The makeup of oxygen and nitrogen in the chamber prepared the divers for the pressure changes. It also, Snodgrass recalled, caused them to talk “like Donald Duck” while they were in the chamber. After the dam was complete, Snodgrass moved on to other Apco projects. He worked in Roanoke and later in Canton, Ohio. “I found the dam work much more interesting than steam power plants,” he said. “Every day, it was something new.” The last time Snodgrass saw the dam and Smith Mountain Lake was before he retired to Florida with
COURTESY OF APPALACHIAN POWER CO.
{ LAKE HISTORY | CONSTRUCTION }
his wife in 1980. The transformation — the dam and the lake community it has created — still surprises him. “It’s absolutely amazing to me to look back at what there was out there before,” Snodgrass said. “To look back at the poor tobacco farms and the impassable roads that had been there. “It’s just hard to believe.”
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{ LAKE HISTORY | ENGINEERING }
From a wilderness river
THE ROANOKE TIMES, FILE 1980
Earle Snodgrass, a man with a calm disposition and a sense of humor, lived in Rocky Mount while supervising the Smith Mountain Project.
64 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
BY FRANK HANCOCK, ROANOKE WORLD-NEWS
Earle T. Snodgrass was born April 22, 1917, in Clarksburg, West Virginia. He worked for American Electric Power Co. for 40 years, starting out as a stenographer and progressing to superintendent of the Smith Mountain Dam project. He died Jan. 8, 2004, in Florida. This story was originally published in the Roanoke World-News on Dec. 2, 1965.
to a hydroelectric plant – the job took 5 years
W
hen Earle T. Snodgrass went down in the fall of 1959 to the wild Bedford-Pittsylvania County area where Roanoke River had cut a rocky gorge through Smith Mountain, there wasn’t much there. There was spectacular scenery with rocky cliffs jutting upward from the river. To the west, beyond the mountain, were broad valleys leading to Roanoke. The area was inhabited mostly by deer, bear, bobcats and snakes. It was the domain of a cantankerous, long-horned goat that had settled in the area. In this setting, Snodgrass was to spend the next five years. His job: Build a hydroelectric plant for Appalachian Power Co., a project which would cost $60 million and include two big dams at Smith Mountain and at Leesville 17 miles down the river. The project would also flood 23,400 acres of land in Bedford, Franklin, Pittsylvania and Roanoke counties. The project is nearing completion now under the supervision of Snodgrass in his position as resident engineer for APCo. When he started the job, Snodgrass had never
built a dam. But he had behind him 29 years of construction experience with American Electric Power Co. and Appalachian. He was fresh from the completion of the huge APCo. Clinch River steam generating plant at Carbo in Southwest Virginia. And, as the tall, lean engineer put it, “most everyone has a certain spirit of adventure and gamble, so I was looking forward to it.” The man who supervised the Smith Mountain project did not go to engineering school. He learned his profession through experience and SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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Snakes were a problem at first and all workmen carried snakebite kits. None were bitten. There were two fatalities from accidents and several injuries during the mammoth construction project.
correspondence courses taken during his early days in construction work for electric power companies. Snodgrass was born at Clarksburg, W.Va., and attended high school at Moundsville and business college at Wheeling. In 1937, he took a job as a stenographer with American Electric Power Co., the parent firm of Appalachian. He gradually moved into the construction end of the business. The story of the power plants he has worked on since then reads almost like a list of the American Power system. During construction of the Clinch River plant, completed in 1959, Snodgrass lived in Abingdon. He and his wife, who have two married daughters, now live in Roanoke. While the Smith Mountain project was under way, they lived in Rocky Mount. Snodgrass is a smiling man with a calm disposition and a sense of humor. His hobby is photography and he has a voluminous movie and still film record of his construction projects. He also likes music but jokingly says he had to give it up except for listening. He once played saxophone and
66 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
clarinet in bands around the country as he moved from one project to another. Now that the Smith Mountain project is virtually complete, Snodgrass admits he is getting a little restless but he has a justifiable pride in the job that has been done. In addition to building a power plant which will generate enough electricity to supply a city of a halfmillion persons, he has seen the creation of a huge reservoir which is becoming the top recreation spot in the state. “It’s a good feeling to see old farm land and fields turned into a beautiful recreation area,” Snodgrass said. “You see little businesses springing up, new schools and homes and vacation cottages in places where you used to ride a Jeep over rough trails. It is also a satisfaction to see the economic boost Smith Mountain Lake is giving to the area in tax revenue and wages. “It’s a sort of pyramiding effect,” he observed. “When we started buying materials for the project
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moved out of the area to be covered by water. Snodgrass remembers one irate country fellow who fired shots over the heads of Appalachian men who came too close. “But they were good people and moving presented a lot of problems which were serious to them,” Snodgrass reminisced. There was the matter of moving some 1,100 graves for instance. Before the area was flooded, archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution went over the ground and found remnants of several Indian villages. The artifacts removed from them are being catalogued by the institution. The big plant is in partial operation now and is expected to be complete in about two weeks when the divers complete their job of replacing trash screens on the dam about 140 feet under water. Crews are at work on a visitors center and overlook at the dam and a picnic area is being constructed below it. Snodgrass figures these projects will be completed by next summer and he is looking forward to his next job with the anticipation of a person who keenly enjoys his work.
THE ROANOKE TIMES, FILE 1960
and hiring men, the money we paid went into other channels and kept building up the area.” He sees a great future for the lake area and, as often as possible, he likes to take off in a boat “to inspect the reservoir.” The job is not without its difficulties. During the peak of construction, there were 750 to 850 men employed by contractors on the job plus about 80 APCo. personnel. Among other things, the workmen placed 100,000 cubic yards of concrete in the Leesville Dam and 175,000 yards in Smith Mountain. They built six new bridges and 22 miles of roads and cleared 500 miles of shoreline at Smith Mountain and 100 miles at Leesville. Snodgrass started his supervision duties using a Jeep for transportation but soon found that a helicopter was the answer. He figures he logged about 300 hours in helicopters inspecting work along 57 miles of river. Snakes were a problem at first and all workmen carried snakebite kits. None were bitten. There were two fatalities from accidents and several injuries during the mammoth construction project. There was some problems in getting people
Earle Snodgrass said he saw great potential in the dam he and his crew were building.
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{ Lake history | eNGiNeeriNG }
Marvel
of
machinery The pump-storage system of Smith Mountain Dam creates a renewable energy resource that has stood the test of time. By Jerry Hale | PHotograPHy
70 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
By
ryan tiPPs
S
mith Mountain Dam, spanning 816 feet from one bedrock-anchored end to the other, 245 feet tall and 30 feet thick at the base, looks large when you gaze down on it in aerial photos or from its visitor’s center observation decks. But until you stand at the base on the downriver side and peer up toward the spillways above, you don’t realize how big it really is! As a writer for Smith Mountain Laker magazine, I was granted an insider’s visit to Appalachian Power Co.’s Smith Mountain Project. Even better, my tour was guided by 32-year American Electric Power veteran David Bailey, who, as energy production superintendent for Smith Mountain Dam plus AEP’s Leesville, Reusens (Lynchburg) and Niagara (Vinton) plants, knows his way around hydrogeneration facilities. Dam construction began in 1959 and took roughly three years. Filling the reservoir with inflow
Clockwise from top left: In case there is any doubt, it’s a long way down from the top of Smith Mountain Dam. A drill press is just one of several tools used by engineers and maintenance workers in the machine shops below the dam. While dam operations are normally controlled remotely, a full set of local controls reside in the dam’s control room. Massive wrenches and shackles on the tool wall.
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Clockwise from top: Gantry structures atop the dam support massive pullies for raising and lowering steel-plate “gates,” which allow water to flow into the turbines. A 450-ton-capacity extractor crane can be positioned above any of the five generator motors, enabling them to be lifted out for maintenance. Hard suits enable divers to reach the foot of the dam more than 240 feet below the surface and stay submerged long enough for their tasks.
from the Roanoke and Blackwater rivers and the many creeks that feed them took until 5:03 a.m. of March 7, 1966, when the lake first reached “full pond” at 795 feet above sea level. Smith Mountain Dam is known as a pumpstorage facility. That’s in contrast to a run-of-river dam such as the much smaller 50-megawatt Leesville Dam 17 miles east, where water simply flows through spinning turbine generators as it is released downstream. Water that’s been used to generate power at Smith Mountain is retained in Leesville reservoir and, when power is relatively cheap due to excess capacity in a mid-Atlantic grid that reaches west and north into Michigan, is pumped back up into SML for use during subsequent power generation cycles. Thus, electricity produced at Smith Mountain is a renewable resource, just like solar and windgenerated power. “Pump storage units have several advantages,” Bailey stated. “They are truly non-polluting — no greenhouse gasses from burning fossil fuels, essentially zero emissions. To handle sudden surges in demand, we can take the plant from idle to full capacity in under 10 minutes, and we can
72 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
shut down just as fast. Fuel-fired plants, in contrast, take hours to start and stop.” This pump-back, water re-use capability, shared by slightly more than 100 dams in the U.S., is what makes Smith Mountain Dam so interesting — and complex. There are five turbine/generator units that, together, can produce up to 605 megawatts of power. Lake water surges through penstocks (the three silver tubes visible on the face of the dam, plus two more lower ones that are partially hidden), rotating man-tall turbine blades in its path. Wicket gates at the lower end of each penstock regulate water flow into the turbines, keeping them spinning at a constant 100 rpm, the speed that produces the 60-cycle current, which is standard in the U.S. Three of the generators can also be operated in “phase reversal” mode, becoming powerful electric motors to drive pumps (the turbines spinning in reverse) that can push water back through the penstocks into SML at about 16,000 cubic feet per second (approximately 7 million gallons per minute). That upstream water flow is sufficient to make the recently installed line of new boat barrier floats actually bow upstream. Smith Mountain Dam’s builders were pioneers
in pump-storage construction. Initially, the structure housed four turbine/ generator units, two with pump-back capability. But design and construction of the “double curve” structure (bent upriver both end to end and from base to cap for added strength) included a water pathway, headstock crane, and 30-foot-by-30-foot steel-plate gate (to regulate water flow into the turbine). In 1979-80, demand called for adding an additional turbine/generator/ pump. That unit, assembled on site, is huge: its rotor core weighs 400 tons, plus another 12.5 tons in lifting connections that enable it to be hoisted out for maintenance. A 450-ton extraction crane is a permanent fixture of the site, able to move across the dam’s base structure to lift any of the five units’
A schematic details the flow of water into the turbines and out to Leesville reservoir. During pump back, the flow is reversed.
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Clockwise from top: David Bailey (left), energy production supervisor, and Laker Magazine reporter Jerry Hale are nearly dwarfed by some of the pullies and cables used to raise and lower one penstock’s water-flow control gate. A stainless steel shaft connects the power generator “motor” and turbine in Unit 4. A wall holds sockets for wrenches used in servicing power generation components. 74 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
covers and internal components as required. “Everything about this dam is expensive,” David Bailey deadpanned. A special crane had to be built to lift Unit 2’s one-piece, 75-ton turbine from the 28-axle trailer that transported it here, over a spillway channel and onto the structure at the base of the dam. That spillway is one of two that can each channel up to 25,000 cubic feet per second of water around the dam should the lake flood above its 795-foot fullpond level. Bailey escorted me inside the Unit 4 enclosure, where we stood just below the 40-foot diameter rotor and shined a flashlight beam up into wire windings that capture generated electricity and feed it into transmission cables for the speed-of-light trip out into the grid. Step-up transformers the size of dumpsters change the current from 13,800 volts to 138,000, reducing line loss by a factor of at least 10. “The power we generate is used by customers virtually the instant it is produced,” Bailey said. “The reservoir — Smith Mountain Lake — functions as a huge storage battery, which, as a side benefit, is ideal for lakefront housing and a variety of waterbased recreation. Supporting the rotor and connecting it to its turbine is a steel shaft that is 49 inches in diameter. The assembly turns on massive bearings; a roughly 2-foot-wide steel braking disc rotating just above pneumatic brake pads is used to stop its rotation when a pump-back cycle ends. Giant tanks nearby store the compressed air used for braking as well as to purge water from the turbines when the cycle begins. Otherwise, the current draw to overcome the rotor’s at-rest inertia in water would take a
tremendous amount of power draw that is not feasible, Bailey noted. Commands to start and stop power generation and operate the pumps that “recharge” the system are usually remotely issued from PJM Regional Transmission Operator, located in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, which coordinates all power generation and transmission in the mid-Atlantic grid. Temperature forecasts, day of the week, time of day and even anticipated storms are considered to create a forecast schedule. “That tells us what to expect,” Bailey said, “but we can and do get messages like, ‘We need you on line ASAP.’” A wall of levers, switches and dials deep in the dam’s bowels, clustered by turbine unit, can be used for local control of water flow and resulting power generation cycles. At more than 50 years of age, Smith Mountain Dam relies on relatively old technology, and though it has had regular updates, it takes a strict maintenance routine to keep it functioning and secure. Staff engineers monitor about 40 “drill holes” in the bedrock near the dam ends, watching for changes in groundwater levels that might warn of seepage around or under the concrete. A team of
five to eight commercial divers periodically inspects the underwater equipment and the screens that keep debris out of the turbines. These screens, similar in mesh size to cyclone fencing, must be opened during pump-back operations so that the force of rushing water doesn’t blow them off into the forebay. To ensure safety, a decompression chamber is brought to the site to prevent divers who have been working in deep water for extended periods from getting the bends. Most every year, a diver in a hard suit goes down for deep inspections near the foot of the dam, and every two years each turbine must be drained, allowing workers to enter
Smith Mountain Dam’s single 450-toncapacity extraction crane moves along a rail lane to any of the five massive powergeneration units.
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Clockwise from top: Bunker-like, a space at the base of the dam on the down-river side houses equipment storage areas and machine shops and provides access to the power plant’s inner-most workings. The “badge board” is to help account for employees when they are working under an equipment-clearance isolation to ensure they are accounted for after the work is complete. Workers at the facility get familiar with myriad gauges, switches, dials and valves.
and repair cavitation damage to its blades. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission performs annual inspections of the dam to assure safety and security. “Any time we see new water marks on the face of the dam, we take a close look,” Bailey said. “And after the earthquake that rattled the east coast in 2011, we did a full round of inspections. I was in my office along the river when the ground rumbled. Believe me, that got my attention.” Bailey notes that hydroelectric power plants can be operated by relatively few employees. But he raves about the skill and dedication of the staff at Smith Mountain. 76 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
“Most begin as Class D mechanics and work their way up to more and more responsibility. Typically they work 4-by-10’s (four 10-hour shifts) per week, but if the need arises, we have cots and a stock of food for instances when people must stay for long periods.” Bailey feels the need for hydroelectric power will only increase. “Six thousand megawatts of AEP’s coal-fired generators were shuttered by the Clean Air Act — plants from the ‘40s and ‘50s that couldn’t be practically retrofitted. That increases the need for fast-response supplemental power to prevent brownouts. Right now, FERC’s emphasis is on power transmission and distribution upgrades. Eventually that’s going to change to a focus on reliable, stand-by generation capacity — exactly what Smith Mountain does best.” As for the water level changes that lake residents observe, Bailey noted that SML is first and foremost a government-regulated power-producing facility that must respond to system demands by letting water through its turbines. “Years ago, the schedule was pretty consistent: We generated during the week and pumped back on weekends. Now, the cycles are shorter. We sometimes have to change from generating to pump-back configuration several times a day. Now and then residents call to request full-pond for an event, maybe a family reunion or birthday. Much as we’d like to, we aren’t able to do that.”
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THE ROANOKE TIMES
Appalachian Power Co. built cemeteries with both marked and unmarked graves in them. The company moved more than 1,354 bodies from 74 individual cemeteries into 27 relocation sites.
78 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
Living and dead
relocated for Smith Dam
BY SUSAN LEWIS, THE ROANOKE TIMES
This story was originally published in The Roanoke Times on Sept. 23, 1962. The reporter, Susan Lewis Flinner, passed away in 2014 at the age of 74.
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he living and the dead — especially the dead — made way for progress in the Smith Mountain-Leesville area. Where once chimneys smoked, children played and forgotten bodies slept in the unmarked graves beneath the trees, the waters of Appalachian Power Company’s $50-million hydro-electric development will soon cover. To claim this land for a lake bed, Appalachian officials worked for two and half years finding new homes for the living, locating above-water graves for the dead and destroying the vacated buildings.
THE ROANOKE TIMES | FILE 1962
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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A chimney is all that remains of a home that was destroyed ahead of the construction of Smith Mountain Lake. Water ultimately covered this location.
THE ROANOKE TIMES | 1962
About 55 families were moved from their old homes destined to lie underwater. “We gave them a fair price for their old homes,” Curtis Roberson of Appalachian said, “and then helped them find a new home or farm somewhere in the area.” In many cases, he said, the new quarters were cleaner, more modern and better quality homes than those vacated. The old buildings were torn down or burned. Tobacco barns, livestock pens, small outbuildings, barns, residences — all met the ax or match. Often only a lonely chimney rising from a bed of charred ruins remains to mark spots of former inhabitation. In seven cases, the entire home was put on wheels and relocated. “These homes were nice and it was cheaper for us to move them than replace them,” Roberson said.
“This area was extensively farmed 50-100 years ago,” he said. “Some of the buildings we found hadn’t been inhabited for 100 years. The farmland had grown up in pulpwood, weeds and saw timber. Actually, the water won’t take over anything of much value.” But the largest job dealt with the dead. More than 1,354 bodies were removed from 74 individual cemeteries to 27 relocation sites. The exact number of bodies will never be known, for often one grave was a multiple burial site. “We know of several cases where a mother was buried with a small child. We counted each grave, however, as just one body,” Roberson said. Every known grave was relocated. Sometimes Appalachian moved people they didn’t find — graves so old that no bones or clothing ornaments marked the spot where a body once lay.
Sometimes Appalachian moved people they didn’t find — graves so old that no bones or clothing ornaments marked the spot where a body once lay.
80 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
“When we couldn’t find a body, we moved the soil. A decayed body discolors the soil and it will never quite look the same. We had ArringtonBussey Funeral Home of Rocky Mount, who moved all of our graves, dig up all the discolored earth and rebury it,” Roberson said. Most of the graves, he said, were slave graves — forgotten, untended and hidden in a forest of trees and undergrowth. Some of the old graves had large trees growing up in the middle of them, perhaps around the stomach region of the deceased. “Our first job was to find the cemeteries. And that was a job,” he said. “Most of the graves were unmarked. The slaves just had field stones — one at the head and one where you thought the foot should be. That’s the only way you knew a grave was there. Sometimes it wasn’t that easy.” Roberson said he thought the slaves were buried wrapped in cloth without benefit of a casket. No evidence of wood was found in the graves. All of the inscribed headstones — however crude — were relocated with the body. “There weren’t many headstones,” he said, “mainly just field stones, sometimes with a name roughly marked on it like Mary Ellen. The ones with headstones almost always had epitaphs — ‘Gone but not forgotten’ or something like that.” The area was once the home field of many Indians. Many were buried in the area — often in creek or river beds — yet none was found to be reburied. Extensive research went into locating the next-of-kin, which in most cases was a great-greatgrandchild or a far away cousin. Some have never been located and the bodies remain nameless and without a history in the Appalachian files. Few relatives witnessed the reburying of an unknown relative. There were no funeral ceremonies the second time. Principal reinternment sites were church cemeteries in Bedford, Franklin and Pittsylvania counties and a few public cemeteries in Roanoke and Bedford. Each grave has been carefully marked with a concrete disc at the grave foot listing the cemetery and body number. A copy of Appalachian’s record will be presented to each church where the freshly buried bodies lie. Sometimes Appalachian set up cemeteries of its own. These willResidential be seeded and& fenced. Most graves Commercial will receive perpetual care — care for those who received no care in the forest. Appalachian’s project to rebury the dead and relocate the living cost the company between $150,000-$200,000.
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Building a monument and memories Bill Shires spent part of his teen years on the crew constructing Smith Mountain Dam.
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made $1.81 an hour,” Bill Shires said of his time working on Smith Mountain Dam in 1962. That’s equates to about $14 an hour in today’s currency — not bad for a young man still in his teens. “I was on top of the world,” he said. “I went out and bought myself a brand new Chevrolet. I told myself, ‘Life couldn’t get any better.’” Now happily married and living at The Water’s Edge, life did get better. Yet those early years of Smith Mountain Lake created lasting memories. Shires was born in Martinsville but moved to Rocky Mount when he was a few months old. He graduated from high school in 1961 and went to Ferrum College. But soon he found himself lured into the workforce — and the hydroelectric power plant being built at Smith Mountain was hiring. “It was just staggering for a kid like me to possibly appreciate what was going on,” Shires said. The tradesmen who worked at the site were a highly skilled, detail-driven bunch. Conditions weren’t always favorable, and the brisk winds through the gap during winter were particularly cruel. But there was camaraderie and occasional bouts of light-heartedness. (Did you know that a metal film canister filled with tacks sounds like a rattlesnake when you shake it?) Sollitt Construction Co. of South Bend, Indiana, was contracted to build the dam, and Shires began 82 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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as a laborer. That first job wasn’t one he was particularly fond of — in a very real way he started off in the hole, one so deep that daylight was elusive. Shires said that he and two others were lowered into a hole that he believes was for a key block, a feature common to arch-style construction such as the dam. Surrounding him was solid rock, and his tasks were built around jackhammers, shovels and picks. “In the mornings when we’d all go down, we’d all have to wear hardhats and rain suits,” Shires said. “There was water everywhere as they were pouring concrete, and we had to leave hoses out to keep the concrete wet while it cured.” A bucket was lowered periodically for the trio to load rocks into or to be scooped to the surface for a lunch break. “We couldn’t hardly see daylight; we certainly couldn’t see the sun until around noon-time, when you could see it for a while,” he said. “The rest of the time it was just gray down there.” After a week or two, he started thinking that there had to be better jobs than this. “I was almost ready to quit when they offered me a job as a carpenter’s helper,” Shires said. “I didn’t know what that entailed, but I knew that it had to be better than what I was doing.” As a teenager, Bill Shires began working at the Smith Mountain Project in January of 1962 for for Sollitt Construction Co.
Bill Shires recounts a time shortly before he began working at Smith Mountain Dam. “We were Boy Scouts when they started building the dam. We had floated this river, from the old Hales Ford Bridge all the way through the gap on flat-bottomed boats one summer. We were a day or two behind what we had estimated we’d come through in the gap down there. Of course, they were going to suspend blasting that day and do it another day. Since we didn’t come through on the day we were supposed to, they assumed we weren’t coming. So they resumed blasting. I remember we came around that bend where the two mountains come together, and they had set off a tremendous blast. There was debris everywhere. We were floating down Roanoke River like we were in a war zone.”
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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At left. Ice forms on the side of Smith Mountain Gap during one of the cold months. Construction crews at the dam had to brave the chilly temperatures to get their work done. Bottom left. Bill Shires worked on construction and survey crews at the dam for a total of about nine months. He is familiar with the rail system that once supported cables that were stretched across the gap during construction.
Caravans of massive equipment continued to be hauled by truck from Rocky Mount. Scores of crew members created the shape that to this day stands at the foot of Smith Mountain Lake. The project reached full pond March 7, 1966, and the region was forever changed. “When this thing first started, it COURTESY OF APPALACHIAN POWER CO. was mostly campgrounds. There were very few homes, and none of these mansions that we see today,” he said. After college, Shires worked for the health department in Roanoke and before heading to its counterpart in Franklin County. He was tasked with enforcing the rules of sewage and other health regulations — no small feat for a newly created area that had no sewage system in place. In many instances, farmers would lease lakefront pieces of land and let people pull mobile homes right up to the water. Sanitation involved little more than digging holes in the ground. But Shires, who had family members who used to have to drive to Claytor Lake or Philpott Lake to go fishing, had little doubt about the appeal of the new lake. Over the years, people settled in, infrastructure Turns out, that job involved running errands for grew, businesses cropped up and a community the carpenters, hauling boards and keeping wood was established. Shires has lived at various parts of steady during sawing. However, it was a union job, SML in his lifetime: first in The Boardwalk, then The so even picking up a hammer got Shires a scolding. Waterfront and, finally, The Water’s Edge. Much of the time, he was assisting those working “I always remember, once I got out of college, on the penstocks, which are the enormous tubes that Smith Mountain Lake was one of our main that the water comes through. forms of recreation. I had a friend named Ray … “The tolerances on those were unbelievable, and we would meet with Ray at one of these public down to the 32nd of an inch or a 16th of an inch. boat launches and we’d put in. We’d have all of our Something unbelievable for something that large,” coolers and blankets and water toys with us, and he said. we’d just find a field and camp out. We didn’t know Shires rounded out his nine months working at who it belonged to. We’d just spend the afternoon the dam on a survey crew — his favorite of his three there, making it our home base. I cannot remember roles — before heading to school at East Tennessee having any more fun than when I was laying on a State University. blanket in some old cow pasture.” But while he left, work at the dam went on. 84 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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home RemembeRing
A mother and daughter who grew up before the lake’s creation looked back on those days in Franklin County.
Dealie Lovell (left), who was born in Roanoke but grew up on farm near Burnt Chimney, sits with her daughter, Pat Park, at their home in LakeWatch Plantation. Together, they reminisced about the years before the lake was built. Lovell died in June 2015 at the age of 102. 86 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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Family photos decorate a shelf in the home in Franklin County.
Dealie Lovell lived on her family’s Franklin County farm until her late teens, when she moved to Roanoke.
ealie Lovell was astonished the first time she saw Smith Mountain Lake. She grew up on a farm on the Blackwater River, just a few miles from Burnt Chimney, but by the time the Smith Mountain dam was built, she had long since moved to Roanoke. She didn’t see the expanse of water near her parents’ former farm until she was nearly 80 years old. “I remember all the talk about the lake, but never saw it until my oldest grandson took me out in a boat. It was the biggest lake I ever imagined,” she said. In her final years, Lovell lived with her daughter, Pat Park, in Lakewatch Plantation. Lovell died in June 2015 at the age of 102. Lovell was born on Dale Avenue in Roanoke, January 13, 1913, but her parents, William and Martha Sink, soon moved the family to Franklin County. They bought 130 acres west of Burnt Chimney, where her father built the family home and raised tobacco. Though Lovell is buried next to her husband in Roanoke, her grandparents and other family members are buried in Old Liberty Cemetery on Virginia 122. “Her roots are here,” Park said of her mother. “It’s fun to drive around with her. She is just a wealth of information about the people who lived in the old houses.” Lovell remembered that she was not required to help out in the tobacco fields, as most of her five brothers and three sisters were, because she was not considered strong enough. Instead she did housework with her mother and fetched buckets of water for cooking and cleaning. The house had no plumbing or electricity. “My mother always said I was the puniest baby she had, but I did the cooking when I was just a kid,” Lovell recalled. She loved picking blackberries and going to the springhouse for cool water but hated the lizards that scurried around there. She usually walked the 3 miles or so to a one-room schoolhouse near Burnt Chimney, but she also recalls riding a pony to school in the rain. She attended Jamison Elementary School in Roanoke for a while when her father was employed at the Hotel Roanoke as a carpenter. Lovell finally left the farm for good in her late teens, moving to Roanoke for a job at American Viscose. SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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Clockwise from top right: Dealie Lovell was wedded at the age of 26 and was married for 67 years before her husband passed away. “I had the best husband ever; we had a wonderful life together,” she said. Though Lovell lived in LakeWatch Plantation until her death last year, she said that she hadn’t visited the family farm in Franklin County in nearly 20 years. Dealie Lovell (left) and her daughter, Pat Park, each have unique memories of the region before Smith Mountain Lake came into existence.
Instead of working in the fields, a young Dealie Lovell did housework with her mother and fetched buckets of water for cooking and cleaning. The house had no plumbing or electricity.
Her father had not allowed his daughters to cut their hair, but Lovell had dreamed of short stylish hair. “So the first thing I did [in Roanoke] was cut my hair,” she recalled with a smile. In Roanoke, she met and married Gus Lovell, who worked more than 40 years for the railroad. “I got married when I was 26. My husband was five years older than me. I had the best husband ever; we had a wonderful life together,” she said. They were married 67 years, until Gus Lovell’s death. In her final days, Lovell sometimes hesitated over her memories of the farm and refers questions to her daughter, who has her own memories of visiting her grandparents there in the 1940s. Her grandmother tried hard to teach her to milk a cow. “But I could never get the milk in the bucket,” Park said. Park remembers always feeling carsick going over Windy Gap Mountain on the way to Burnt 88 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
Chimney. “Mother remembers that as a dirt road,” she said. Both women have especially fond memories of Jacob Sink, Lovell’s grandfather and Park’s greatgrandfather, who lived on the Blackwater farm for some years when Park was a child. “My great-grandfather — we called him GrandPap — walked with a cane, but he would always walk down to the river with me. I remember that the Blackwater River seemed so enormous to me,” Park said. The two women haven’t visited the farm in 20 years. It belonged to someone else then, and they don’t know who owns it now. “I can see it all in my mind, but maybe I don’t remember it the way it really was,” Park said. Although she had not heard what her daughter said, Lovell echoed her thoughts. “Franklin County doesn’t look like it used to look to me,” she said.
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A packed project Wrangling huge snakes, chicken grease and long days at the dam stand out to Judge William Alexander.
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ifty-four years later, it’s the snakes the judge remembers about those three summers he spent as a teenager helping build “The Dam.” That and the day “Pop” downed a big cup of cold cooking grease and sobered up in the blink of an eye, despite having spent the afternoon drinking from a gallon jug of bootleg. Judge William Alexander, who retired a year and a half ago from Franklin County Circuit Court, worked on the Smith Mountain Dam for three summers beginning in 1962 with the Nello Teer Company when he was just 17 and later with Sollitt Construction. His first job there was helping clear the land before it was flooded. Working with bulldozer driver J.B. Anderson, the judge would hook up logs and trees behind a bulldozer so they could be moved to a large burn pile. With several bulldozers working together, the crew also included dozer driver Hill Shively, whom the judge describes as being “as rough as they come but always nice to me” and an old man they called Pop Shively. “We were in the most beautiful places — in the woods with lots of game and snakes,” Alexander explained. “It wasn’t hard work — the hardest thing about it was watching out for the snakes. I was always fascinated by snakes. I’d catch all the black snakes and king snakes and play with them.” He tried to avoid the rattlesnakes and copperheads, however, and says that to this day the ones he did come across are the largest he’s ever seen. Indulging his snake fascination, he brought several home, and after teaching himself how to tan, preserved them. His mother, despite hating snakes, mounted those snakes for him in a shadow box frame that he displayed proudly in his room. On Alexander’s last day of work that first summer, the crew knocked off work a few hours early for a celebratory chicken fry. Someone had brought a big black cooking pot to the job site, along with a gallon of bootleg whiskey. “It never bothered me, but I was never much of a drinker,” Alexander said. “But those guys got so drunk. And old Pop Shively — I’ll never forget this — he took that grease that we fried the chicken in and got a great big cup of it — and he was as drunk as he could be — and drank it down cold. Sobered him up just like that. It was absolutely amazing.” On his second stint at the site of Smith Mountain Dam, Alexander worked on the dam itself where he and his fellow laborers had to join the union and pay dues. No one complained, however, because Alexander, who was accustomed to earning about a dollar an hour at previous jobs, was now making
COUrTESy Of AppALACHIAN pOwEr CO.
Top. Cables stretch across the gap during the construction of Smith Mountain Dam. Opposite page. Judge William Alexander worked for three summers at the dam and the surrounding areas.
two dollars an hour, working 50 hours a week, and receiving time-and-a-half for 10 of those hours. To get to the dam, Alexander recalls piling into a big truck with several other young men every morning at about 4:30. With most of the group asleep, the truck would travel from Rocky Mount over rough roads until they finally reached the construction site where work began at 7 a.m. in an attempt to avoid some of the day’s heat. “We did whatever they asked,” Alexander recalled. “Sometimes we’d be shoveling rock, taking wheelbarrows of rock out, or occasionally we’d work the jackhammer.” His other vivid memories of the dam’s construction include concrete being poured from a huge bucket suspended from a cable, turbines that he estimated to be at least 10 feet in diameter, a helicopter being used to lower a large bladder filled with some type of liquid used in the construction, and hearing about a worker who accidently slid down the dam’s face into the water and survived. When asked if his work on the dam had any role in helping guide his future career choices, Alexander said it didn’t but that the experience gave him a deep appreciation for how hard people from all different walks of life will work and how hard they had to work. SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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A Sollitt foundation
Art Campbell’s hiring in 1960 at the Smith Mountain Dam site led him into a construction career.
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Art Campbell grew up on a tobacco farm in Penhook. 92 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
n 1960, Art Campbell was offered a job, one that he had no idea would place him in the position of making history. A Penhook native, Campbell grew up on a tobacco farm at the base of Smith Mountain where The Water’s Edge community stands today. He was 22 and working as an inspector for the Virginia state highway department on the U.S. 220 bridge over Virginia 40 in Rocky Mount, when one May day, he was approached by a representative from Sollitt Construction Co. out of South Bend, Indiana, who was looking for an engineer to help the company lay out the Smith Mountain Dam. “When they moved in, they set up in the Franklin Hotel and they were looking for an engineer to do the layout work,” Campbell said of Sollitt. “I talked with them and wound up being employed. I spent 14 years with Sollitt.” Building the Smith Mountain Dam was at the time just another project to be done, Campbell said, albeit a challenging and exacting one on which he’d spend the next five years of his life, beginning in mid-May of 1960. “When I went to the dam to work, each side of the mountain had been cleared of trees where the dam proper is now. ... In order to lay out the dam, first of all we had to get access; there were some sycamore trees along the bank. And the carpenters built a cable system across the river, then built us a flat boat that we were able to maneuver across the river to go to each side to start the layout,” he said. Campbell’s crew was also charged with creating
COUrTESy Of AppALACHIAN pOwEr CO.
A rail and cable system was constructed during the building of Smith Mountain Dam in the 1960s.
the all-important transit system by which building materials could be transported across the rivers to each side of the dam. “One of the first things I was involved in was a cableway system. The cableway was moved there from the Grand Coulee dam [built in Washington state from 1933 to 1942]. The cableway engineer came with Sollitt and with the cableway system. I was to lay out the roadway for the tail tile … that’s where [the cableway] is anchored into the mountainside. Envision a “T” about 4-feet-square that anchored into the mountainside, then a rebar was attached with a big hook placed on the end to attach the cableway to. In order to get to this point, to get the elevation that they wanted, they had to have a road built. “So I went up and laid out the roadway and it’s partially still there — it’s a gravel road goes up to
the tail tile. The cableway was anchored to it. On the other side was a railcar with a ballast on it that is still there today. It moves up and down with the hook on the end of it. We laid it out, then we started on the dam, of course at the bottom, excavating. The river bed was at about 595 feet in elevation, and we went down different depths, to good solid rock, in some places 10 or 12 feet.” he said. After excavation was complete, concrete pouring began with guidance from drawings and a scale model of the project. “We had drawings that gave us locations for this concrete through a series of what we call blocks. There are 10 of these blocks right across the dam, roughly 800 feet, each block is 80 feet long,” he said. “At various times, I had two, sometimes three survey parties doing different work on and around the dam. I did a lot of traveling back and forth SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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THE ROANOKE TIMES
The gap had to be cleared of trees at the time Art Campbell began working at the dam site for Sollitt Construction Co. in May 1960.
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across the river. Often, if the hook for the cableway wasn’t being used to lift something, I jumped on it to run to the other side. Then you had no safety regulations, basically. We didn’t know what OSHA was; we never had EPA.” In January of 1965, Campbell left the dam project to take on other roles with Sollitt Construction Co., which eventually led to the creation of his own construction company in West Virginia, which returned to perform additional work on the dam, including the replacement of turbine Unit 3 in the 1980s. Over his long career, Campbell says, nothing topped working on the dam. “[The dam] is probably one of the last projects of its type that will ever be built, with our present regulations,” he said. “It’s a beautiful lake; no one at the time envisioned what it is today. I’ve been on a lot of projects in my life and I probably enjoyed that project more than any construction project I’ve been involved in. It was a challenge and there were great people to work with.”
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Moneta:
The little town that keeps going
The heart of Moneta has been relocated to a spot along Virginia 122, along where a bypass was built.
96 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
By Ken Lauterstein, speciaL
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LaKer WeeKLy
This story was originally published Oct. 28, 2011, in Laker Weekly.
I
DON PETERSEN
ndustries started and stopped, train stations came and went, a Hollywood crew and actors descended on the town, Main Street was blocked forever, and a bypass sent the little town into a downward spiral — and yet Moneta, like the phoenix, is rising again. It all started in a community that had been predominately populated by farmers since the American Revolution. In 1857 three young men, George, John and James Lipscomb from Pittsylvania County, bought 20 acres of land from Stephen Harris on Terry’s Branch and the Lynchburg-Salem Turnpike. It was along this branch that the village of Moneta developed. Jordan Lipscomb, father to the young men, started a tanyard and the area would be known as Lipscomb’s Tanyard for the next 30 years. A shed was built to grind tanbark from oak, hemlock and chestnut trees, which were then put in large vats buried in the ground and filled with water to soften the hides into leather. The hair from cow hides was saved for mattresses. When the Civil War began, the three Lipscomb brothers joined up, but George was soon discharged to continue making leather for the cause. After the war ended, two other brothers, John Anthony and Ambrose Lee Thaxton, came to a hill across from the tanyard on land their mother had inherited from the estate of her father, Anthony Rucker. They started a blacksmith shop and built a two-story log home. A one-room schoolhouse and a church were constructed as other families moved into the area and married. In 1880, John Thaxton bought his mother’s property and built his first store with the help of his neighbors. The Thaxtons began to work for a post office in their store. Mildred Thaxton suggested the name Moneta from a book she was reading at the time (perhaps SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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Moneta has been reborn as a shopping hub with a new colorful downtown.
HUONG FRALIN
John Keats’ “The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream [1856],” or Moneta, a subject of Roman Mythology). The post office was approved in 1882. Just to the north of Moneta was the neighborhood of Martintown, near the Piney Grove Elementary School and African-American Promised Land Baptist Church. Martintown was formed from 182 acres left to six former slaves and their families by Caroline Hancock Martin. Most of the men, who had taken the name of their former owners (a common practice at the time), received 30 acres on which to live and farm. The new town was relatively isolated in southern Bedford County and the only railroad, the Virginia and Tennessee, passed through the northern part of the county. The building of the Virginian Railroad in the early 1900s played a role in putting Moneta on the map. Henry Huttleston Rogers, an executive of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, financed the railroad, connecting the coal fields of Deep Water West Virginia to the ocean ports at Norfolk while passing through Moneta. Italian immigrants provided the bulk of the labor for building the new
98 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
line and by 1908, the first passenger train arrived in Moneta. Train service led to new industries, including a lumber mill, canning factories, feldspar (a mineral used in paints, ceramics and glass) mines, a wooden-box factory and dairies. Also built near the railroad were stores such as the Dinwiddie Store and the Meador store. A Ford dealership attracted customers willing to trade in their horses for an automobile or a tractor; a gas station soon followed. A bank opened in 1911 but closed in 1925 when farming economics prevented farmers from paying back their loans. Other banks followed suit during the Depression. Martintown disappeared when residents were forced to leave to find work in the cities. Moneta survived with a population of about 200 during the mid-1900s. A new high school opened in 1934, a Plymouth Chrysler dealership was opened at the site of the old Thaxton Store and the fire department was built in 1955 on the site of the old Rucker Store. The building of Smith Mountain Dam had a huge impact on Moneta. Planning for the project started
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in the 1920s, but studies at the time concluded the expected water flows were insufficient to generate the necessary hydroelectric power. However, by 1954, when Appalachian Power Company purchased the land the Staunton River Power Company had bought for the project, new developments in pump-back dam operations and turbine-system design made the project viable. By 1961 concrete was being poured for the dam, the construction of which was completed in 1963. It took another three years for the lake to achieve full pond. Moneta prospered because of its relatively close location to the construction areas and the 600 people who worked on the project. In the end, 20,600 acres were flooded in three counties, resulting in 500 miles of new shoreline, and most importantly the beginning of a flood of recreational activity centered on the new Smith Mountain Lake. However, too much of a good thing can and did have negative consequences. The flood of boaters and tourists overwhelmed available services in Moneta, and new shopping centers and stores were built closer to new lake communities. The older Moneta stores became an antique mall, restaurant, produce business and a boat repair and storage facility. For about 30 years Moneta carried on. It got another unexpected boost when, in 1990, Walt Disney Studios chose Moneta as a set for its movie, “What About Bob?” The town was spruced up for scenes featuring Richard Dreyfuss and Bill Murray, who starred in the movie. Although the scenes portrayed a town near Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, the attention the production received, including a 1992 article in The Washington Post about “Virginia’s Jewel in the Blue Ridge,” attracted even more boaters, tourists and part- and full-time residents to the area. Once again, Moneta’s one-step-forward-onestep-back history added another chapter when, for reasons of safety combined with a government mandate to close 25 percent of railroad crossings
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RyAN TIppS (AbOvE), LAKER WEEKLy FILE (AT RIgHT)
A typical day brings a trickle of cars through what was once downtown Moneta, now filled with mostly vacant buildings.
throughout the country, Moneta’s grade crossing became a prime target for closure (the crossing at Moneta had a blind curve). Although not the primary factor in the decision to close the crossing (the increase in SML-related traffic was a prime consideration), there was a terrible tragedy in the 1970s when a woman crossed the tracks to shop at a local store. Her house caught fire with her baby inside. Before she could return with the fire department, a long coal train had passed through the crossing, blocking access. Everyone watched helplessly as the old house was quickly consumed and the baby perished. Unfortunately the railroad tracks bisected the town as well as Virginia 122. So when the crossing
was closed in 2000 after the Virginia 122 bypass was completed around the town, residents knew old Moneta would become a dead end and the downtown area would continue to deteriorate. Today, Downtown Moneta, a new development of restaurants, stores and single-family homes just west and north of the old village, continues to grow. After 129 years, Moneta survives and appears to be thriving, although perhaps not in the way the Lipscombs, Thaxtons, Saunders, Ruckers and many other original settlers had imagined. Sources: “Bedford Villages, Lost and Found, Vol. III. Peaks of Otter Chapter of the DAR, Bedford 2000 Lost Communities of Virginia, Fisher and Sparenborg, Virginia Tech Community Design Center, Albemarle Books, 2011”Moneta Village Was Founded Before the War Between the States” by Lillie Craghead, Bedford Bulletin, Dec. 24, 1953
After 129 years, Moneta survives and appears to be thriving, although perhaps not in the way the Lipscombs, Thaxtons, Saunders, Ruckers and many other original settlers had imagined.
100 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
VA SMIT H MOUNTAIN LAKE,
Dr. Sam was an icon in Old Moneta B
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the (lynchBurg) news & advance This story was originally published May 18, 2008, by The News & Advance in Lynchburg. Holly Sweet, whose family has lived in Moneta for more than a century, had a rare sickness as a toddler that a number of doctors couldn’t diagnose. A trip to Dr. Sam Rucker Jr. proved it to be a reaction to a tick bite, she said. Rucker, who died in 1987, is a popular name that still resonates with locals. He carried on the practice of his father, Sam Rucker Sr., by making house calls and often not charging patients for his service. He had no waiting room and patients waited in their cars for their turns. Calvin Woodford, a lifelong village resident, said they were on sort of an honor system to see who went next. The community returned the favor by taking up collections for him, said Woodford. Marie Batton, who grew up in the town, described Rucker as Moneta’s icon. She remembers his glasses that he wore down by his nose and his serious demeanor when giving school physicals that all students had to pass to engage in extracurricular activities. He also came to her house to diagnose her case of measles. “He assured me I would be just fine and not to scratch,” she said. “It was reassuring if Dr. Sam said it was going to be OK.” Rucker’s house still stands and has been converted into a gift shop close to the village. His small office also remains on site. “He took care of everybody in this area,” Woodford said.
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1959-1960 th
ANNIVERSARY
Building a future The dam was a massive undertaking of manpower and engineering ingenuity.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE ROANOKE TIMES, APPALACHIAN POWER COMPANY, THE (LYNCHBURG) NEWS & ADVANCE AND JOHN ZINN NEWSPAPER
CLIPPINGS FROM
THE ROANOKE TIMES
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CAPTIONS BY
RYAN TIPPS
The site selected for the Smith Mountain Dam, which was drawing interest in the early 20th century, was a narrow gap dug by the Roanoke River on the border of Bedford and Pittsylvania counties. THE ROANOKE TIMES
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ABOVE. Over the years, the number of employees working on the project in one capacity or another would range from a couple of hundred to more than 600 people. This included carpenters, who framed in many elements of the dam before the cement was poured. AT RIGHT. A movable anchor on a rail line was attached to a pulley system that spanned Smith Mountain Gap.
PHOTOs By WARREn W. GIlBERT fOR APCO
104 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
AT LEFT. The steel span at Hardy Ford is under construction. The bridge helped to create what is now an important lifeline between the city of Roanoke and Smith Mountain Lake along Hardy Road. BELOW. Construction crews lay piping in Smith Mountain Gap at the site of the dam. The condition of the surrounding rock — some of which was weak from years of water or ice damage — underwent months of testing.
PhOTOs By WArrEn W. GiLBErT FOr APCO
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1961 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP. In December 1961, crews were working on powerhouse blocks 5 and 6 of the Smith Mountain Dam. By this point, fill concrete was well underway in the intake sections of these blocks. In February 1961, a workman stretches cable high above Smith Mountain Gap. As the decking is put into place, the second steel arch on the Hardy Ford Bridge is almost complete.
WARREn W. GILbERT FOR APCO
106 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
WARREn W. GILbERT FOR APCO
ThE (LynChbuRG) nEWS & AdvAnCE
OPPOSITE PAGE. Cement began being poured June 1, 1961, and one of the blocks of Smith Mountain Dam began to grow to an elevation of 635 feet. At the same time, steel forms were being started.
Warren W. Gilbert for aPCo
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the roanoke times
1962
Courtesy of John Zinn
108 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
Warren W. Gilbert for aPCo
CLOCKWISE ON OPPOSITE PAGE. The new, taller Hales Ford Bridge (left) is built within sight of the older bridge (right), which exists to this day beneath the lake. Crews work at intake blocks 5 and 6. The Hardy Ford Bridge was one of many spans built in the region in anticipation of rising waters once the dam was plugged. THIS PAGE. Construction is ongoing for the draft tube structure for Units 1, 2 and 3. Upon completion, the overall dam was to be 227 feet high and 816 feet wide.
WArrEN W. GILbErT fOr APCO SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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1962
PHOTOS by WaRREn W. GILbERT FOR aPCO
COuRTESy OF JOHn ZInn
CLOCKWISE FROM THE TOP. The view down the shaft showing the inside of a diversion conduit and the start of a steel rim. Smith Mountain Dam is a double-curvature arch dam, and was built directly into the bedrock. The newly built Hales Ford Bridge runs past an old store before the floodwaters came. 110 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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1963
Warren W. Gilbert for aPCo
From the air, the distinct curvature of the Smith Mountain Dam is clear. In September 1963, the dam was closed and the lake began to form in Bedford, Franklin and Pittsylvania counties. 112 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
TOP. People stand near Hales Ford Bridge, which won the Award of Merit in the 1963-64 AISC Bridge Competition. BOTTOM. Those who worked at the dam site were dwarfed by the size of the structure, and those in the surrounding communities were getting a better understanding of the dam’s potential.
COurTesy Of JOhn Zinn
Warren W. GilBerT fOr aPCO SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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Photos Courtesy of John Zinn
1963
There was an abundance of construction jobs at the dam site and in the surrounding area to work on bridges and other infrastructure (including the award-winning Hales Ford Bridge, at left). A significant amount of manpower was needed for the project at Smith Mountain that ultimately used about 175,000 cubic yards of concrete. Deyerle stuDios
114 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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Photos by Warren W. Gilbert For aPCo
116 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
Warren W. Gilbert For aPCo
Courtesy oF John Zinn
By 1964, the flooding of the region had begun. Trees along the slopes had been cleared, while vegetation in the lower areas was simply covered with water. There was still much work to be done on the Smith Mountain Project, but it was also evident how far the massive undertaking had come.
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1964
Photos by Warren W. Gilbert For aPCo
The transformation of the region is well underway. Though crews continued to do work on the dam — the finishing touches lasted until at least 1967 — early commercial and real estate interests were already planning the future of the community.
Courtesy oF John Zinn
118 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
Courtesy of John Zinn Warren W. Gilbert for aPCo
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SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
Courtesy of John Zinn
1965
120 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
TOP, OPPOSITE PAGE. An aerial view shows what the region looked like in January 1965, more than a year before Smith Mountain Lake officially reached full pond. BOTTOM, OPPOSITE PAGE. The view from Saunders Point in Bedford County. AT LEFT. Divers were sent into the depths next to Smith Mountain Dam to do work. To this day, inspections are conducted regularly underwater at the base of Smith Mountain Dam.
PHOTOS BY WARREN W. GILBERT FOR APCO
SMITH MOUNTAIN
JUNE
JULY
(1966 to 1990) It wasn’t long after the creation of the dam that people began to discover SML, which was a camping, fishing and boating paradise of the time. Most of all, a sense of community began to take shape.
(1991 to 2015) These have been the boom years of Smith Mountain Lake, as residential and commercial development laid the groundwork for the region as we know it today.
This issue will go inside the lives of some of the lake’s early residents and how the creation of places such as SML State Park and Bridgewater Plaza changed things.
This issue will explore, through stories and photos, the growth of residential and business life and tourism at the “Jewel of the Blue Ridge.”
AUGUST
(2016 into the future) The effort that created Smith Mountain and Leesville lakes was a project like no other in the state, and it’s unlikely to ever happen again. The historic scope has had a lasting impact on Western Virginia and the counties of Bedford, Franklin and Pittsylvania. This issue will showcase the vision of many who have helped keep the lake as a leader in development and growth.
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CALENDAR
122 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
MAY 1 RAY MARTIN | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 2 p.m.
2 GOLF TOURNAMENT | 8th annual Andy Andrews Memorial Spring Swing charity golf tournament hosted by Bethlehem United Methodist Church. $10,000 cash and other prizes. 1 p.m. bethlehemunitedmethodist.org
5 THE ACOUSTICS | Live music at Sunken City Brewing Co.
May
|
2016 Calendar
Find more events in Laker Weekly and online at smithmountainlake.com!
SOCIAL SEEN
6 SML BUSINESS EXPO | 13th annual SML Business Expo in Downtown Moneta. 120 businesses will be represented from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. visitsmithmountainlake.com FISHING TOURNAMENT MAY 6-8 | Optimist Club Fishing Tournament at Gills Creek Marina and Lodge. Prizes awarded. (540) 721-2451 TIM MARTIN | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 7:30 p.m
7 SML 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPRING FESTIVAL | At The General Store. visitsmithmountainlake.com
COURTESy Of jIM SHAUbERgER
LAKE PLAYERS PLAY | Lake Players present a variety show “Fifty,” which includes the original play “Across the Cove,” a musical review of 1960s songs and dramatic readings, at Waterfront Country Club. 6 p.m. SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE BEER & BBQ FESTIVAL | A variety of barbecue from North Carolina to Kansas City and everything in between will be served at Downtown Moneta plus 20 local and regional craft breweries and cideries. Enjoy live music and craft vendors. 1-7 p.m. $20 advance tickets, $30 at the gate, $5 non-tasting admission only, children 6 and under admitted free. visitsmithmountainlake.com FUZZY LOGIC | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 7:30 p.m. DALLAS LEONARD | Live music at Sunken City Brewing Co. WAYNE KEY & THE BACK ROAD BAND | Live music at Ole School Sports Pub & Grill.
8 MOTHER’S DAY LUNCHEON CRUISE | Mother’s Day luncheon cruise aboard the Virginia Dare. Moms receive $5 off. 2-4 p.m. Reservations required. (540) 2977100, vadarecruises.com JODY ENSOR | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 2 p.m.
BEST BET SML TRIATHLON | MAY 7 The SML Triathlon provides the perfect event for those eager to stretch their bodies and endurance. Now in its 19th year, the triathlon has 275 to 500 athletes who compete in the three phases of the race: a 750-meter swim, a 20K bike ride and a 5K run. The event benefits Virginia Amateur Sports and the ALS Foundation and is held at Smith Mountain Lake State Park. commonwealthgames.org/special-events/triathlon
LAKEr fILE
10 WINE DINNER | The Blackwater Cafe. 6:30 p.m. Reservations required. (540) 721-4333, blackwatercafe.com
13 CONCERT | A SML 50th anniversary event, “Celebrate the 60s with The New Crusty Minstrels” at the SML branch of the Franklin County YMCA on May 13 and 14. Sing-along, dancealong concert featuring covers of 40
drEAMSTIME.COM
pop songs from the 1960s. Proceeds benefit SML Good Neighbors’ Summer Reading and Enrichment Camps. Bring your own snacks or drinks of choice, or buy sandwiches and soft drinks from Hot Shots onsite. Doors open at 6 p.m. $25. (540) 721-7222, visitsmithmountainlake.com FIVE DOLLAR SHAKE | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 7:30 p.m.
DANIEL POLLOCK | Live music at Sunken City Brewing Co.
14 WALK AND TALK | Carilion Clinic and Booker T. Washington National Monument in Hardy team up for a brief health-related talk followed by a social, 1.5 mile hike. 10 a.m. Free. Booker T. Washington National Monument, Hardy. (540) 721-2094, nps.gov/bowa
dON pETErSEN
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SOCIAL SEEN
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CALENDAR
ART SHOW | Local artist Jane Stogner’s new collection and demonstration. The Little Gallery, Bridgewater Plaza. 1-3 p.m. (540) 721-1596, thelittlegallerysml.com WHEELS AND WINGS | Antique planes, remote-controlled planes, antique cars, quilts and other family activities at the Smith Mountain Lake Airport in Moneta. Food available for purchase. Free. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. visitsmithmountainlake.com
May
COMMUNITY COOKOUT | A “Welcome Back to Summer” cookout hosted by Lake Christian Ministries at Scruggs Fire Department. Free hamburgers and hot dogs. 5-8 p.m. lakechristianministries.org FRIENDS OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON “LEGACY DINNER” | At Trinity Ecumenical Parish. 6 p.m. visitsmithmountainlake.com FUNKY BONE | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 7:30 p.m. THIRD BIRTHDAY PARTY W/SETH CUSTER & THE WILLIES | Live music at Sunken City Brewing Co.
15 MARIE ANDERSON | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 2 p.m.
16 BBQ & BLUES | BBQ tasting and live music at the Sedalia Center in Big Island. 12 p.m. $10 advance ticket,
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124 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
$15 at the gate, children 12 and under free. (434) 299-5080, sedaliacenter. org.
SHAME FOR SYDNEY | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 7:30 p.m. CS2 | Live music at Sunken City Brewing Co.
17 THE JAYHAWKS WITH FOLK UKE | Live music at Harvester Performance Center. $46.50. 8 p.m.
19 THE SELDOM SCENE | Live music at Harvester Performance Center. $35.50. 8 p.m.
20 PIGG RIVER RAMBLE | MAY 20-22 | Race other ramblers down the Pigg River or float for fun. Sponsored by Franklin County Parks and Recreation. (540) 483-9293, franklincountyva.org/ parks TOM MAYNARD MEMORIAL POKER RUN | MAY 20-22 | Charity event where participants boat to designated spots around the lake to collect playing cards in an attempt to put together the best poker hand. Includes food, prizes and live music. (540) 588-0616, smlba.com DAVID WILEY/RSO “SALUTE TO SML 50TH ANNIVERSARY” | Live music at Resurrection Catholic Church. $32, $40, $60, $67. 7 p.m. smithmountainartscouncil.com SAMANTHA FISH | Live music at Harvester Performance Center. $27. 8 p.m.
HUONg fRALIN
21 PIGG RIVER RUMBLE 5K TRAIL RUN | Sponsored by Franklin County Parks and Recreation. (540) 4839293, franklincountyva.org/parks NATIONAL KIDS TO PARKS DAY | Hiking, wagon rides, and tracking games at Smith Mountain Lake State Park. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. dcr. virginia.gov/state_parks/smi.shtml ARMED FORCES DAY 5K | Patrioticthemed 5K Run/Walk and Youth Fun Run in honor of Armed Forces Day sponsored by the National D-Day Memorial, Bedford. 8-10:30 a.m. (540) 587-6592, dday.org YACHT RACE | 50K Around the Lake Yacht Race to benefit the National Kidney Foundation. Race begins at Pelican Point Marina. Sponsored by the Blackwater Yacht Racing Association and the Pelican Point Yacht Club. 10 a.m. byrasailing.org ANNUAL SUNDOWN CLASSIC 5K | 5K glow stick walk/run kids fun run for ages 3-6 includes a sky lantern ceremony and live music. Smith Mountain Lake YMCA. 7-10 p.m. (540) 721-9622
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www.smlblinds.com SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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SMITH MOUNTAIN
smithmountainlake.com
SMITH MOUNTAIN
SMITH MOUNTAIN
january/february 2016
smithmountainlake.com
march/april 2016
Vintage romance
smithmountainlake.com
july/august 2015
th
ANNIVERSARY 5:03 A.M. | MARCH 7
A white, horse-drawn carriage adds flair to lake-area weddings
&
HOME GARDEN Everything you need to make your lake home into a paradise.
Civil War Letters
Tourism at SML
Wedding Guide
Lodging Guide
Gardening And Deer
Then and Now at SML
50K Race at Dam
SIGHTS FOR
SOAR EYES
GUIDE
A new perspective takes hold in the skies above Smith Mountain Lake.
UV boat protection
Student Assistance
Expert Woodworking
Get Laker Delivered To Your Home! Whether you’re a lake visitor, a part-time resident or just like seeing your name on the cover of a magazine (albeit on the mailing label), Smith Mountain Laker magazine is available by subscription! A one-year subscription is $25, and a twoyear subscription is $40. You can email customer@smithmountainlaker.com or go online at www.smithmountainlake.com/ site/subscribe.html. We accept checks, Visa and MasterCard. Trust us, your mailbox will thank you for it! And if the magazine doesn’t give you your full SML fix, Laker Weekly, which comes out every Wednesday, is available for free in racks around the lake or via home delivery in Bedford and Franklin counties by subscribing to The Roanoke Times. Call (540) 981-3211 or email customer@ roanoke.com.
JOHN ANDERSON “ACOUSTIC TOUR” | Live music at Harvester Performance Center. $37 & $52. 7:30 p.m. DIAMOND BACK | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 7:30 p.m. MARIE ANDERSON | Live music at Sunken City Brewing Co. MENDED FENCES | Live music at Ole School Sports Pub & Grill.
22
TRUE CADENCE | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 7:30 p.m.
FUZZY LOGIC | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 7:30 p.m.
THE BELL HORNETS | Live music at Sunken City Brewing Co.
THE RUCKUS | Live music at at Sunken City Brewing Co.
28 ARTISAN FAIR | Art, artisan crafts, agriculture, farm to table foods, live music, art education workshops and gallery exhibits at the Sedalia Center in Big Island. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $5 at the gate, children 12 and under free. (434) 299-5080, sedaliacenter.org
DAVID BALDACCI BOOK SIGNING | Celebrate the release of David Baldacci’s book, “The Last Mile,” and have your book signed by the local author at The Little Gallery, Bridgewater Plaza. 1-3 p.m. (540) 721-1596, thelittlegallerysml.com
PATRIOTIC CONCERT | Stars and Stripes Forever: Patriotic Concert at the National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, presented by the Jefferson Choral Society and the Chorus of the Blue Ridge. 7 p.m. Bring your own lawn chair. (540) 587-6592, dday.org
SEAN BERA | Live music at Mango’s Bar & Grill. 2 p.m.
FRIDAY NITE BLUEGRASS BAND | At Smith Mountain Lake State Park Beach Pavilion. Hot dogs, sausages, ice cream, drinks and other refreshments for sale. Bring your lawn chairs. $5 per person, 12 and under free. 8-10 p.m. (540) 2976066, dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/ smi.shtml, smlspfriends.com
25 THE ZOMBIES | Live music at Harvester Performance Center. $57, $72 & $152. 8 p.m.
27 SUZY BOGGUS | Live music at Harvester Performance Center. $30. 8 p.m.
HUONg frALIN
SUNSET SATURDAY | Live music from The Panini Brothers, family activities and wine tasting at Hickory Hill Vineyards & Winery, Moneta. $10 general admission. 7-10 p.m. (540) 296-1393, smlwine.com
29 KEITH MCFADDEN | Live music at Sunken City Brewing Co.
30 MEMORIAL DAY CEREMONY | Remembering Their Sacrifice Memorial Day Ceremony at the National D-Day Memorial, Bedford. 11 a.m. Free. Bring your own lawn chair. (540) 587-6592, dday.org PAINTING DEMO | Russell Voelker at The Little Gallery, Bridgewater Plaza. 1-3 p.m. (540) 721-1596, thelittlegallerysml.com
31 LAKE WRITERS PRESENT AUTHOR SHARYN MCCRUMB | Lake Writers celebrate the 50th anniversary of SML with a book talk, discussion and book signing by famed Appalachian writer Sharyn McCrumb at Bethlehem United Methodist Church, Moneta. Free. 4-5:30 p.m.
COUrTESy Of jIM SHAUbErgEr
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SOcIAL SEEN | OUT & ABOUT
out & about
1
128 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
FULL POND DAY More than 100 people gathered at Smith Mountain Lake State Park on March 7 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the lake reaching full pond — a feat that happened at 5:03 a.m. March 7, 1966. The ceremony also showcased a historical marker, which was unveiled at the park in Bedford County. Photography by Ryan Tipps. 1. Smith Mountain Lake Marine FireRescue boats firing water cannons 2. Officials unveil the historical marker 3. Musicians Jerry Hale (from left), Johnathan Dillon, Steve Farrar, Jim Wilson and Jim Laseter
3
2
SML LIONS CLUB REVERSE RAFFLE
1
The annual Smith Mountain Lake Lions Club Reverse Raffle took place March 19. The elimination-style drawing was a Lions fundraiser held at the W.E. Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center. Prizes ranged from $100 to $5,000. Photography by Ryan Tipps. 1. Tim Holt and Shirley Holt 2. Gary Slusher and Margie McGuire 3. Iris and Joe Meadors
2
3
1
DAM 50 FEStIVAL 1
On April 2, more than 110 runners competed in the Dam 50 Festival, which included a 50K, 5K and one-mile fun run. The event was held at Smith Mountain Dam. Photography by Karen Dillon. 1. Katie Hutchins (left) and Selene Guerrero of Virginia Beach 2. The Altices: Ashley (from left), Sandra, Katie and Mike of Rocky Mount 3. Vicki (left), Kyleigh, 12, and Craig Spence of Wirtz
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Read
Now
This
Uncharted Territory
S
cOURTESy Of BETSy ASHTON
outhern Mississippi’s barren landscape in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is a far cry from the luxury of an Upper East Side Manhattan apartment. But the broken Deep South region, surviving in the wake of tragedy, is precisely where Moneta author Betsy Ashton has plunged her wealthy, high-style protagonist in the second of her three-part “Mad Max” series. “Uncharted Territory: A Mad Max Mystery” reconnects readers with Maxine Davies and her family, who are struggling with their emotions after the murder of Max’s daughter in the first book. “A swept-bare area, where most of the locals had fled inland, was perfect for me to start to explore what Max was trying to
do with her life, which was to completely change it and raise grandkids along with her son-in-law,” Ashton said. The son-in-law, who long equated good parenting with bringing home a paycheck, now embraces a hands-on approach to fatherhood with Max by his side. His work takes him to Mississippi, where the family lives in high-end recreational vehicles just five weeks after Katrina hit. While there, however, they are confronted by bigotry, racism, murderous escaped convicts and child abuse. Ashton’s goal was to pull Max outside her comfort zone and explore how the character would react in such a dire situation. “This is not black-on-white prejudice that she runs into. It’s black and white
READER REVIEWS
The Nightingale By Kristin Hannah Fans of Kristin Hannah appreciate her ability to weave the compelling stories of strong female characters into beautiful historic fiction. And with her newest bestseller, Hannah does not disappoint. “The Nightingale” tells the tale of two sisters — one passive, the other rebellious — struggling to survive Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Switching between both points of view, the book explores a number of heart-breaking topics while placing an emphasis on the role women played during the war. It’s a tear-jerker that you may find yourself consuming in one sitting. — Andie Gibson
send us your PICK!
Feisty After 45: The Best Blogs from Midlife Women Don’t be misled by this book’s title. “Feisty After 45” is filled with stories to be enjoyed by women and men of all ages. A perfect read for lounging on the dock this summer, I’ve found myself going back again and again to reread chapters such as “The Pleasures of Porches and Generational Tables” and “Infamous Parking Lot Encounters.” The editor, Elaine Ambrose, assembled this beautiful collection of essays with a keen eye for the right mix of heartfelt and laugh out loud funny. — Kimberly Dalferes
What’s the best book you’ve read recently? A classic? Bestseller? Suspense? Biography? Non-fiction? Email the title, author, a brief synopsis and reason you would recommend it to other Lakers to editor@smithmountainlaker.com.
130 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
LocaL author SpotLight
on Hispanic, and it’s black-and-white ‘us’ versus everyone who’s ‘them.’ It’s a complicated situation that she finds herself in,” Ashton said. “And they end up coming to this area that has nothing. There are no services; there is dirt; there are piles of debris; there is the stench of death still there.” Writing the second book, which came out last year as an e-book and will be released in print this month, was different in many ways from the first. “By book No. 2, I knew the characters really well,” she said. “I was able to work with their quirks to bring them out and enhance things that I wanted people to take away from the characters.” The final piece of the series is expected to arrive in 2017. — Ryan Tipps, Editor
EDITOR’S PICK
Reflections on Smith Mountain Lake
— Ryan Tipps
STEvE gOrE
By Smith Mountain Arts Council More than 50 stories, from dozens of different lake authors, come together in this anthology to celebrate the 50th anniversary of SML reaching full pond. Some of the authors talk about the fondness of younger days at the lake; others are eager to convey first impressions or to mark milestones. The poetry and prose of this book can tickle the funny bone or make us introspective — almost all of it elicits emotion. Most importantly, these are stories about us, about our community and the many people who visit and live here at Smith Mountain Lake. And it’s told by those same people who have chosen to make this region such an important part of their lives.
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Enjoy our famous ice cream & milk!
We invite you to come out to the Homestead Creamery to enjoy our allnatural milk, old-fashioned butter and creamy ice cream. We have handdipped ice cream cones, milkshakes and sundaes. In addition to our own high-quality products, we use Boar’s Head meats and cheese to make delicious sandwiches. We also offer local, all natural beef and pork, fresh produce, apple butter, honey, jellies, barbeque sauce and baked goods. And don’t forget to stop by our free petting zoo with the kiddos!
Buy One Ice cream cone, get one
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* Buy one,get one of equal or lessvalue free. valid May 1 - may 31,2016
(540) 721-2045 132 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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Votedthe Best frozenTreatsand bakery sweettreats in 2016 bythe readers of Laker Magazine.
Center
Just
Fun
for
Across
1. Pod or seed vessel 7. Testing flavors 14. Bread maker 15. Pertaining to the chest 16. Less fresh 17. Poisonous alkaloid obtained from nightshade 18. Time spent in the Senate 20. Calypso offshoot 21. Bacchanal 22. Eminent 23. Accordingly 24. “The Catcher in the ___” 25. Ratty place 26. Multiplied by 27. Bar 28. Macho guys (hyphenated) 29. Any “Seinfeld,” now 30. Impressionable 31. Puts away 32. Navigational aid 33. Got along 34. Electric cables 35. ___-relief 38. Microwave, e.g. 39. Recipe direction 40. Luxurious 41. Blah-blah-blah 42. A skillful feat 44. Get going 46. Captain of a barge 47. One signed up in a class or school 48. Devoted 49. Gloom 50. Turns back, perhaps
Down
1. Someone who grants a lease 2. Diner 3. Farm 4. To untwist 5. Convene 6. Containing error 7. Tie up 8. Bitter 9. “Cut it out!” 10. Blouse, e.g. 11. Native men of Ireland 12. Sturdy buff cotton cloth 13. Extracts 15. Many a Degas 19. Mountain ash trees 23. Kitchen counter?
25. Bit 26. Lonestar state 27. Evening hour 28. Steering device 29. Dodo 30. Observation, part 3 31. Treeless plain 32. Evening party 33. Slang for old people 34. ______ & Ladders 35. Triangular flag 36. Rise 37. Bed coverings 39. Barbecue fuel 40. The ___ Prayer 42. Game piece 43. Charge 45. Elephant’s weight, maybe
ANSWERS ON PAGE 134
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Just
Make your home Inside and out!
For
Fun
Answers to this issue’s puzzle, which is on Page 133.
WESTLAKE
On Rt. 122 at Westlake Village Open Thur-Sat 10-6 & Sun 12-5 www.grandhomefurnishings.com As an outlet, our merchandise changes constantly. The item shown represents some of our styles, but this specific product may not be on display at this location.
In memory Alison Parker
Adam Ward
Their lives tragically cut short on Aug. 26, 2015. #SMLStrong
134 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
advertiser index BUSINESS NAME
May 2016
PAGE
MAP ID* BUSINESS NAME
PAGE
Phil Hager Insurance
115
-
Pine Creek Structures
15
-
102
E7
RSI Rentals
111
E7
35
-
Runk & Pratt
132
E7
Seven Oaks Landscape/Hardscape
77
J5
Smith Mountain Lake Dental Practice
10
E7
SML Aviation
68
D10
Southern Landscape Group
102
-
Southern Roots
89
E7
37
E7
101
Arrington Construction Atlantic Bay Mortgage Automatic Boat Covers Bartlett Tree Experts
94
-
Bayside Marina & Yacht Club
35
E8
Better Sofas
99
-
Blinds & Beyond
125
D7
Bobcat of Roanoke
125
-
77
MAP ID*
E7
Absolute Collision of SML
E7
Capps Home Building Center
4
E7
Sunken City Brewing Company
Carilion Clinic
43
E7
The Westlake
62
D7
Centra
9, 95
-
TopNotch Lawncare
102
E7
Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital
111
-
Turner’s Building
51
J9
Craft Collision
29
A9
Virginia Dare Cruises & Marina
35
E10
Crazy Horse Marina
35
F9
Webster Marine Center
30
C8
Designer Solutions
101
E7
Westlake Wash
94
E7
Dollman Construction Inc.
81
-
16-17
E7
99
-
140
E7
F&S Building and Remodeling
73
B8
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate
Grand Home Furnishings Outlet
134
E7
3
H11
Groundscapes
89
-
Horne, Jane Sullivan Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate
Haywood’s Jewelers
15
E7
32-33
C8
Hickory Hill Vineyards & Winery
75
D9
Homestead Creamery
132
G4
Jordan, Cameron & Angie SML Sales, Inc.
12
C8
Hughes Marine
61
-
Lake Retreat Properties Inc.
136
C11
Ideal Cabinets
21
-
44-46
C8
Interiors by Kris
55
E7
McDaniel, Glenda Long & Foster REALTORS McDonald, Mary Lou ML Realty
14
D11
McDowell-Kent, Sylvia Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate
63
E7
Millehan, Vicki and Shelton, Debbie Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate
5
E7
Montgomery, Dana Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate
41
E7
Rust, Genie Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate
125
E7
The Carolyns – Carolyn Crabtree and Carolyn Pruett Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate
139
E7
Dream Vacations – Kauffman Travel Team Emerson Creek Pottery
Joe’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria
115
E7
Kroger
2
E7
Lakescapes Nursery
85
J9, E7
Main Street Solar
81
-
Marshall Stone Inc.
111
-
M.H. Eades Inc.
25
E7
Michael Dillon Custom Docks
59
C8
Mid-Atlantic Timerframes
23
-
Moneta Dentistry
125
A9
Moneta Heating & Air
77
-
National Pools
115
-
Nationwide Insurance
89
-
COMING NEXT ISSUE June 2016 Don’t miss the next issue of Laker Magazine, which will continue our four-part series celebrating the history of Smith Mountain Lake. SMITH MOUNTAIN
smithmountainlake.com
may/june 2015
Dipping into
SUMMER Being on the water is a seasonal must-do
REAL ESTATE
Johnson, Phyllis and Basham, Tim RE/MAX Lakefront Realty, Inc.
SoVA Wine Trail
Marina Guide
Kids at SML State Park
Dock & Dine Map
Senior With A Kick
PLUS: Lake Homes Lake & Garden
*The map ID corresponds to the map on the following pages, as well as the larger, more detailed Laker Map produced each year by Laker Media. Laker Map is available in racks around the region, including the offices of Laker Media, 272 Westlake Rd., Hardy (behind Kroger) and online at lakermap.com.
Laker Profile | Restaurants Fit & Healthy | Entertaining Crossword | Books Social Seen | Calendar | Map ... and more!
Deadlines July’s advertising scheduling and materials: May 20 Call or email for rates, circulation and distribution information: 540.721.4675, ext. 409 or 410 ads@smithmountainlaker.com July calendar of events submissions: May 27 Email complete details to calendar@smithmountainlaker.com.
SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
135
4 A
Search Properties For Sale and Tour Over 75 Lakefront Vacation Rental Homes
B
C
Selling Smith Mountain Lake for over 36 years!
Call, click or come by!
D
E
F
G
Look for our rental brochure in local businesses or contact us to request one. H
I
J
136 May 2016 | SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKER
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SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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Dock Tale
Hour
The fine arT of
I
g n i r e tink B
y
K
i m B e r l y
recently found myself enraptured by an article in Science Magazine. Trust me, no one was more surprised than moi. I sport a serious addiction to shelter magazines — show me a glossy cover of a lakeside retreat with the headline “The Ultimate Lake Cottage Remodel for less than $1,000” and the magazine instantly goes into the shopping cart. However, Science Magazine? Though not my usual reading material of choice, I couldn’t resist an article with this title: The brains of men and women aren’t really that different, study finds. Oh, really? I’m here to tell you my friends, I’ve collected a lifetime of empirical social science data — well, I’ve been examining the male gender of our species my entire life so that’s gotta count toward something. My observations have allowed me to reach an indisputable conclusion: Tinkering is a male dominant activity. When it comes time to relax, women will read, men will tinker. Women tend to their gardens; men tinker. Women drink wine, gab with gal pals, make to-do lists, go shopping; men tinker. Men do not sit a spell — they need to roam and rummage and fidget. This has led me to deduce that it’s just the way our guys are wired. It doesn’t matter what you call it: tinkering, puttering, fiddling, etc. What’s important to note is that most men have elevated tinkering to a form of high art. Especially at this time of year, when the sun warms our docks and the days are long and breezy, you’ll find our males out and about, tinkering. I present to you Exhibit A: the Hubs. On a picturesque sunny morning, one of the glorious spring days we have here at SML, Hubs awoke and proclaimed, “I think I’m gonna go fishing.” “That’s great, babe. I hear the largemouth are spawning. I plan to run to Walmart for some potting soil so I can replant the window box, then I need
D
a l f e r e s
to call Jane and maybe take a walk, oh, but first I need to pick up burgers and buns for dinner, and …” “I’m definitely gonna go fishing.” “Have fun.” I returned home two hours later (OK, maybe three, it’s not my fault Kara’s Closet had some colorful cute skirts on sale) and as I deposited my shopping bags on the kitchen counter and peered out through the back windows, I spotted a lone figure sitting at the table on the dock. “Hey you,” I called out as I padded over the back lawn and across the wooden dock planks. “Whatcha doing? I thought you were going fishing?” “Oh, I am, I just wanted to get this reel working right, and I needed to go through this old tackle box.” Strewn across the table were pieces and parts, fishing line, Day-Glo yellow rubber worms, a can of Mountain Dew and a multitude of spinner baits, hooks and jigs alongside two half-empty bags of potato chips. All the telltale signs of a fine day of tinkering. “OK, hon, call up to the house if you need anything.” I don’t think the Hubs ever made it onto the water that day. But for him, a day of rummaging through the boat house was just as relaxing. Bless his heart and his weirdly wired brain. Whoops, I think I forgot to call Jane. Kimberly Dalferes is the author of “I Was In Love With a Short Man Once” and “Magic Fishing Panties.” Her humor blog, “The Middle-Aged Cheap Seats,” is online at kimdalferes.com.
Carolyn Crabtree 540.520.2486
Carolyn Pruett 540.493-1919
ccrabtree@smithmtnlake.com ccrabtree.smithmtnlake.com
cgpruett@aol.com carolyn-pruett.com
Riverbay
Three Quarter Point
Turning Dreams into
MLS#821912 $1,895,000
The Water’s Edge
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MLS#815467 $949,000
MLS#821846 $1,195,000
Windward
MLS#811867 $574,900
www.SmithMtnLake.com
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Cindy Robertson Simmons
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