See how local members of the electric cooperative have energized the area. (page 36-37)
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Publisher Gene Fowler Editor Moss Brennan Writers Matty Staskel Ian Taylor Jillyan Mobley Marisa Mecke Production & Design Johnny Hayes Meleah Bryan Beginning left are: 3, just to the right of the Horton place, the Jim Moretz Store building; 4, (shrouded in trees) the Linney home; 5, the original Watauga County bank; 6, the old city hall building; 7, the Critcher Hotel; 8, early residences on Grand Boulevard; 9, the Tom Greer house; 1-. the narrow-guage “wye” of the Linville Railway Company. The street at the center of the photograph is Depot Street. The photographer stood slightly west of what was formerly the home of Appalachian President Herbert Wey.
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER Dear readers, It is with great pleasure that we bring you our sesquicentennial edition magazine celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the town of Boone. As you peruse the pages of this celebration, we hope you find fond memories and new information about this place we call home that will give you an even better understanding of who we are as a community and where we will go in the years ahead. Since 1888 The Watauga Democrat has documented the births, deaths, marriages, pandemics, wars, games won, games lost, and simply, the everyday life of the inhabitants of our corner of the “Lost Province.” As the oldest continually operating business in the High Country, it has been our honor and joy to bring you this slice of life. We hope you enjoy this edition and support the advertisers that made this journey possible.
Gene Fowler Publisher
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Advertising Mark Mitchell Teresa Laws Austin Fowler John Goheen Tim Walker Henry Volk
ON THE COVER: Top Left: Thousands of locals and visitors stand in a long line on July 7, 1966, to watch the fourth annual Daniel Boone Wagon Train make its westward journey along King Street in Boone. Top Right: A look at Boone and App State’s campus from above. Photo courtesy of Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections Bottom Left: What the town of Boone looked like in 1984 as seen in a June 20, 1984, edition of the Watauga Democrat. Bottom Right: This photograph of King Street during the Boone Christmas Parade is pictured in 1965.
A NOTE FROM MARK FREED
Dear Boone community, Thank you for taking a look at this special Boone 150 edition of the Watauga Democrat. By reading these articles, you join a growing group of community members and visitors helping us celebrate the Town of Boone’s Sesquicentennial, or Boone 150. Planning for the celebration began more than a year ago when Bettie Bond — recently named the first inductee in the Watauga County Historical Society’s Hall of Fame — alerted the Town’s Historical Preservation Commission and Town Council about the significant date. The Town of Boone was incorporated on Jan. 23, 1872, making Jan. 23, 2022, the start of Boone’s sesquicentennial year. Of course, the land where Boone is located, surrounded by beautiful mountains, forests, rivers, and valleys, has been home to humans for thousands of years, and Anglo-American settlers established Councill’s Store here as early as 1823. Still, this year marks the 150th anniversary of officially being Boone, and we have reason to celebrate. Over the past 13 months, representatives from numerous community groups, local historians, teachers, librarians, artists, community organizers and others passionate about Boone have been collaborating, creating and organizing. Combining new programs and cultural resources with existing community celebrations and other serendipitous anniversaries, the Boone 150 celebration will fill out 2022 and leave an impact to last for years. The celebration began in December with a wonderful exhibition by Dr. Andrea Burns and her public history students, Becoming Boone: 150 Years of History, Community, and Everyday Life. Parts of the exhibit are currently on display at the Jones House and Watauga Public Library. In January 2022, Mayor Tim Futrelle officially declared the Boone 150 celebration to take place throughout the entire year. And all year there will be lots of ways for citizens and visitors to learn about Boone’s history and participate in the celebration. The Watauga Public Library will be featuring a year-long community reading program with a
focus on local books and authors and including some inperson events. There will be opportunities to take guided historic walking tours of downtown Boone and the Boone Cemetery on First Friday events this spring, summer, and fall. During the Earth First Friday celebration on April 1, the Town of Boone’s Sustainability Coordinator will give away 150 trees. There is a new downtown music and arts festival being planned for June 18 called Boonerang that will feature bands and musicians with Boone connections. The Blue Ridge Community Theater will be putting on a special Boone Birthday production in late June at the Appalachian Theatre, celebrating Boone with song, script, and film. The Town of Boone will collaborate with App State’s Arts and Cultural Programs to present a July 3 event at Clawson-Burnley Park and the State Farm Parking lot that will include afternoon festivities, an evening concert, and nighttime fireworks. The annual July 4th parade will include special Boone 150 highlights, including a wagon train celebration. The Southern Appalachian Historical Association – which celebrates 70 years of Horn in the West this summer, will also help produce a celebration of sacred music styles at Daniel Boone Park on August 20, featuring a wide variety of local gospel groups. There is a Boone summit being planned for the fall to talk about Daniel Boone and the mark he left on this town and region. There are other publications, historical markers, holiday celebrations, and activities being planned. In fact, there are far too many to talk about in this short piece. So, I encourage everyone to keep up with the events on www.boone150.com and to continue being a part of the celebration throughout the year. Mostly, I would like to thank the many, many individuals and organizations that have contributed to the Boone 150. This celebration is their gift to the community; their nod to the last 150 years and hope for the future. Together, we will continue to make Boone a great place to live, work, and play for years to come.
Mark Freed Boone Director of Cultural Resources
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 5
Boone 150
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Below are events the town of Boone is holding to celebrate 150 years. All event dates and times are subject to change. More events will take place throughout the year. Some events will have Boone 150 themes, but will not necessarily be about the celebration. Year-long — Boone Reads Together with Watauga Public Library featuring Tom Whyte’s Boone Before Boone
March March 4 — First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8 p.m. March 13 — Indoor Concert at Jones House with The Kody Norris Show at 4 p.m. March 23 — Indoor Concert at Jones House with Foghorn Stringband at 7:30 p.m. March 26 — Boone Reads Together at Watauga Public Library with Tom Whyte at 10 a.m.
April April 1 — Earth First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8 p.m. / 150 Tree Giveaway April 2 — Opening day of the Watauga County Farmer’s Market at Daniel Boone Park April 23 — DRABA’s Spring Thaw at Daniel Boone Park 3 p.m.
May May — Boone Reads Together with Watauga Public
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Library featuring Eric Plaag’s Remembering Boone May 6 — First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8 p.m. May 14 — Pinecones & Pages literary festival at Daniel Boone Park
June
June 3 — First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8 p.m. June 8-12 — High Country Jazzfest June 10 — Summer Concert at the Jones House June 17 — Summer Concert at the Jones House June 18 — Boonerang Music & Arts Festival June 19 — Juneteenth Celebration June 23, 24, 25 — Blue Ridge Community Theatre’s “Happy Birthday Boone” at Appalachian Theatre
July July — Boone Reads Together with Watauga Public Library featuring Cratis Williams and Patricia Beaver’s I Come to Boone July 1 — Opening Night of the Horn in the West at Daniel Boone Park July 1 — Summer Concert at the Jones House / Freedom First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8:00 p.m. July 3 — Independence Celebration at ClawsonBurnley Park / Concert at State Farm Parking Lot / Fireworks
July 4 — Independence Day Parade and Wagon Train celebration July 8 — Summer Concert at the Jones House July 15 — Summer Concert at the Jones House July 22 — Summer Concert at the Jones House July 29 — Summer Concert at the Jones House
August Aug 5 — Summer Concert at the Jones House / First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8:00 p.m. Aug 12 — Summer Concert at the Jones House Aug 19 — Doc Watson Day Aug 20 — Boone 150 Sacred Singing event at Horn in the West Aug 26 — Summer Concert at the Jones House
September September — Boone Reads Together with Watauga Public Library featuring Junaluska: Oral Histories Sept 2 — First Friday /
Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8 p.m.
October Oct 7 — First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8:00 p.m. Oct 30 — Boone BOO! 4 p.m.
November November — Boone Reads Together with Watauga Public Library featuring Jim Hamilton’s The Last Entry Nov 4 — First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8 p.m.
December December — Boone Reads Together with Watauga Public Library featuring Joe Miller’s One Night Dec 2 — Festive First Friday / Gallery reception at Jones House 6:30-8 p.m. Dec 10 — Town of Boone Holiday Parade celebrating a year of Boone 150 Dec 31 — Last Night Celebration and Horton Hotel Ball Drop
File Photo
King Street, the heart of downtown Boone, is home to many local shops and restaurants.
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 7
Erica Helms Boone Branch Manager
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BOONE 150 | 2022 | 9
Celebrating a Heritage of Faith and Community U.S. Disaster Relief, Boone NC
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amaritan’s Purse is honored to be a part of the Boone community and to base our international headquarters in the High Country. Since 1970, we have brought physical aid and the Good News of Jesus Christ to people affected by natural disasters, poverty, war, disease, and famine. We invite you to join us in bringing help and hope to a hurting world. To learn more about our ministry and opportunities to serve, go to samaritanspurse.org.
“Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.” –Psalm 119:90
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT.
HAPPY 150 YEARS, BOONE!
Samaritan’s Purse®, Franklin Graham, President P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607 | 1-800-528-1980 | samaritanspurse.org SamaritansPurse @SamaritansPurse | © 2022 Samaritan’s Purse.
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Image courtesy of the George Flowers Collection, Digital Watauga Project. Image courtesy of the Historic Boone Collection, Digital Watauga Project.
(Clockwise from top left) L. A. Ramsour image of Boone from the southeast, circa 1885. King Street runs left to right (west to east) through the center of the image. The 1875 courthouse and its cupola are visible at center left. An excursion train of the Linville River Railway rumbles past the Appalachian Training School campus in this image that likely dates to the early 1920s. Image courtesy of the George Flowers Collection, Digital Watauga Project. The Daniel Boone Hotel, shown in this 1920s postcard, was located on the original site of Jordan Councill, Jr.’s, post office and home. The hotel offered luxury accommodations to travelers and featured a Sunday brunch that was popular for decades. Its demolition in the 1980s is widely considered to be one of the great tragedies of shortsighted redevelopment in Boone’s history.
A Most Delightful Location Celebrating Boone’s 150th
Image courtesy of the Historic Boone Collection, Digital Watauga Project.
BY ERIC PLAAG This year, the Town of Boone celebrates its official incorporation as a town by the North Carolina legislature on Jan. 23, 1872. As you will see in the pages of this edition and future press releases, a number of public events involving dozens of organizations are scheduled throughout the year to celebrate Boone 150. It will surely be a fun-filled, jam-packed year. So, how do we begin to contextualize and understand the significance of this anniversary? One way is to note that Jan. 23, 1872, was probably more ceremonial in the minds of Boone residents that year than it was a boldly transformative moment. After all, the community of Boone — sometimes spelled “Boon” in its early years because of variant spelling practices — had been in existence since 1849, when the state legislature authorized Jordan Councill, Jr., Noah Mast and Jonathan Horton to lay out and sell lots for the county seat for the newly established Watauga County. Those lots were located on 50 acres of land donated by Ransom Hayes and Jordan Councill, SEE DELIGHTFUL ON PAGE 12
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 11
Image is courtesy of the Cy Crumley Scrapbook and the Jones House Collection, Digital Watauga Project.
This image shows Boone from the southwest in April 1939, with the Linville River Railway depot at center right, the rear of the Appalachian Theatre just above that, and the Linney House at extreme center left.
DELIGHTFUL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 Jr., running west to east from a point just east of present-day Straight Street to present-day Depot Street and north to south from present-day Rivers Street to present-day North Street. Before 1849, the Boone community was known as Councill’s Store, named for the mercantile business that Jordan Councill, Jr., operated on the north side of King Street where the Daniel Boone Condominiums are currently located. Councill also operated a post office out of his store at least as early as 1823, when the area remained very thinly settled, and Councill played a major role in convincing the legislature to locate the new Watauga County seat just to the west of his store location in 1849. Securing a county seat certainly improved Councill’s fortunes, even as it made matters easier for many local residents to have a say in and impact on their own governance. 12 | BOONE 150 | 2022
In short, Boone was already Boone in 1872, albeit still little more than a collection of ramshackle, mostly frame buildings supporting the local county court. John Preston Arthur, whose 1915 history of Watauga County remains a key source for our understanding of Boone’s early history, tells us that Boone remained thinly settled at the time of official incorporation. Within the 1872 town limits of Boone were a handful of residences mostly along King Street, the courthouse on the present Linney House parcel, a log jail near the northwest corner of Depot and Howard Streets, a couple of whiskey saloons, a couple of hotels built in 1870 (the Coffey Hotel and the Blair Hotel), a handful of storerooms, and a wagon and harness operation. Boone’s only church congregation at the time in town limits— the local Baptist congregation — actually met in the original courthouse and did not yet have a church of their own. The Methodists would not build in Boone until 1873. Indeed, author Charles
Dudley Warner, who visited Boone in the late 1880s, found the Boone community to still be remote and undeveloped, calling it “a God-forsaken place.” Warner added, “It had a gaunt, shaky courthouse and jail, a store or two, and two taverns…. The court is the only excitement and the only amusement. It is the
event from which other events date…. There is nothing special to be said about Boone. We were anxious to reach it, we were glad to leave it.” Other chroniclers of the period were similarly ungenerous. What incorporation in 1872 did accomplish was the creation of a model for town government. That initial government structure consisted of five commissioners and a mayor, with annual elections. Incorporation also set boundaries — town limits — for Boone, which initially extended “one mile east, west, north, and south from the court house.” The following year, the state legislature revised these boundaries to points only half a mile in each cardinal direction from the courthouse. Boone’s expansion to its present limits was largely a 20th century development, borne by two major changes that came to Boone in the early 20th century. SEE DELIGHTFUL ON PAGE 13
Image courtesy of the Historic Boone Collection, Digital Watauga Project.
Original 1849/1850 map laying out lots for the new Watauga County seat called “Boone.” The “Public Square” at the center of the image is the present site of the Linney House on King Street and contained the original courthouse until it burned in 1873.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 The first of those major changes was the establishment of the Watauga Academy in 1899 by Blanford Barnard Dougherty and his brother Dauphin Disco Dougherty, whose explicit intent was to improve education in the High Country. The school grew quickly, changing its name to Appalachian Training School for Teachers in 1903. A powerful force in both education and business during the first half of the 20th century, B. B. Dougherty worked closely with Boone and Watauga County officials, as well as other business leaders, uniting their respective interests to a common cause — bringing people to Boone, educating them, and growing the local economy as a result. From the beginning, the Doughertys also advocated strongly for bringing a railroad to Boone, recognizing that a more reliable connection to other parts of North Carolina was vitally important for Boone’s economic transformation. The arrival of the railroad — the second major change for Boone — eventually came, but its connection headed west to Tennessee rather than east to the rest of North Carolina. Nevertheless, extension of the Linville River Railway to Boone in 1918 radically altered Boone’s fortunes. Prior to 1918, for example, locally kilned brick was notorious for being soft and unreliable, meaning that Boone lacked modern, fire-safe commercial buildings before 1920. Completion of the railroad to Boone meant that developers could import highquality bricks, sand, finished lumber, and eventually steel for the modernization of Boone’s commercial
townscape. Boone’s education, business, and political leaders recognized that, introducing the official “Watch Boone Grow” campaign in 1919. New homes and subdivisions, warehouses on Depot Street, and attractive, brick commercial buildings such as the Boone Drug Company Building, the Qualls Block, the Jones Block, the Watauga County Bank, the Boone Hardware/Farmer’s Hardware Block, the Linney Block, the Pastime Theatre, the Boone United Methodist Church, the Watauga Kraut Factory, and the Daniel Boone Hotel, along with several smaller, brick buildings, were all projects in the “Watch Boone Grow” campaign. The campus of what was renamed Appalachian State Normal School in 1924, then Appalachian State Teachers College in 1929, Courtesy of DigitalNC.org was similarly expanded and Advertisement from Weekly Raleigh Register, June 27, 1849. altered. Accompanying all of this development was a series Be Sure To of annexations and additions to the boundaries of Boone to Visit The incorporate those new areas Blowing Rock “Enjoy the Legend” of residential and commercial development into town limits. By 1929 and the start of the Great Depression, Boone would have seemed unrecognizable to someone who had last seen it just 10 years earlier. Boone, in its own way, had become a mountain metropolis. Curiously, Boone’s 50th anniversary in 1922 seems to have passed largely unnoticed, just as Watauga County’s 50th anniversary in 1909 had been mostly ignored. This was not true in 1949, when Boone’s business, education, and political leaders saw an opportunity to transform the NORTH CAROLINA’S OLDEST TRAVEL ATTRACTION community once again in SINCE 1933 celebration of the Watauga County Centennial. Following
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Image courtesy of the E. T. Glenn Collection, Digital Watauga Project.
The 1949 Watauga Centennial Parade heads east along King Street in this image taken from the marquee of the Appalachian Theatre. At dead center is the old Stallings Jewelry clock, which stood just east of the Appalachian Theatre. The original Smithey’s Store building is the frame building at upper left, now the site of Boone Bagelry.
DELIGHTFUL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 the loss of Boone’s rail connection to the 1940 Flood, as well as the major upheavals of World War II, Boone needed to pivot to define itself economically. By the end of 1945, Americans had embraced automobile tourism as a major pastime, and improved roads into Watauga County, along with construction of portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway just a few miles from Boone, meant that Boone was a potential mountain gateway for all those tourists. With this shift, Boone saw the emergence of automobile dealers as a core element of its economy, as well as the redevelopment of its Howard Street corridor into a series of warehouse buildings focused more on the automobile and trucking trades than on the rail-based economy of the previous 30 years. As a result of increased tourism, tourist courts — the early version of roadside motels — also began to pop up on the 16 | BOONE 150 | 2022
fringes of Boone to accommodate the new visitors. Meanwhile, town business leaders saw the 1949 Centennial as an opportunity for a major, multi-day tourism event, including an hours-long parade through Boone and performance of a series of vignettes called Echoes of the Blue Ridge. These vignettes, which continued to be performed annually through 1951, also inspired local leaders to hire Kermit Hunter, a noted outdoor dramatist, to write a play for a new performance venue in Boone. Horn in the West opened in June 1952, establishing Boone as a major stop on the summer, outdoor drama circuit. Other tourism draws in Boone followed in the next decade, including the Boone Golf Course and the Daniel Boone Native Gardens, as well as more distant attractions such as Mystery Hill and Tweetsie. Commercial and residential growth also expanded along Blowing Rock Road and the East Boone Street corridor toward Perkinsville, which was later annexed into Boone’s corporate limits. An often-overlooked aspect of change
during the 1960s in Boone was the role of racial integration and progress on the path to racial equality and equity. From its earliest beginnings, Boone has featured an unusually diverse population relative to other parts of Appalachia. When Boone was first laid out in 1849, for example, 82% of the Black and mixed-race population was enslaved by Boone residents, while the other 18% were listed as Free Persons of Color. The legacy of slavery and its impacts after the American Civil War remained indelible in Boone for more than a century, taking on new forms of oppression after Reconstruction through Jim Crow laws and segregated facilities. In the 1898 election, local Black residents saw many of their white neighbors, including the editor of the Watauga Democrat at the time, campaigning hard to strip them of the right to vote. In the mid-1920s, they saw cross burnings, a parade by the Ku Klux Klan, and the renaming of the former courthouse’s courtroom to Ku Klux Klan SEE DELIGHTFUL ON PAGE 17
DELIGHTFUL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 Hall. In the 1940s and 1950s, white folks holding minstrel shows and schoolchildren marching in Blackface as part of the town parade were common sights. In the 1960s, however, change finally began to come. The Appalachian Theatre fully integrated in 1960, for example, and by the mid-decade local schools were starting to integrate as well. Black workers who had long been hired for service jobs in downtown Boone finally began to have equal access to those services, including restaurants, stores, and entertainment. Appalachian State Teachers College also integrated at this time, too, offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees to Black students. Meanwhile, the historically Black Junaluska community, which had been present on the Junaluska hillside since the mid-19th century, remained a tightknit, thriving neighborhood just north of downtown Boone, even as developers began to nibble at the land on the fringes of the community. By 1972, when Boone celebrated its centennial in grand fashion, Boone was actually in the midst of an identity crisis. Local businesses, residents and officials were beginning to grapple with the challenges of trying to maintain and market Boone as a quaint mountain community, a thriving university town, and a tourist mecca all at once. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, for example, growth of Appalachian State Teachers College was generally well-managed and reflected ongoing cooperation among town, county, and university officials. Student enrollment in 1958 was just two thirds the size of Boone’s population. By the late 1960s, however, tensions began to surface over local growth and development. The transition from a state college to Appalachian State University in 1967 effectively doubled the student population, and by 1979, enrollment had doubled again and nearly overtaken Boone’s population tally in the 1980 Census. Meanwhile, the vast cultural and social changes of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s meant that college students — who had seen their access to downtown, social activities and living options severely
restricted by college codes for much of the 20th century — suddenly enjoyed many more freedoms. Some students sought independent, off-campus living options within Boone, sometimes finding accommodation in established family neighborhoods. Development of cheap apartment complexes to meet these demands, coupled with a lack of local zoning restrictions, also meant that Boone’s architectural character and settlement patterns saw dramatic change. Expansion of the campus toward downtown, as well as university acquisition of parcels bordering or located in downtown, became a cause for local concern for downtown Boone’s continued survival. Traffic levels surged and ridge-top development prompted both environmental and aesthetic fears. Outside of downtown, rampant development of shopping centers, the Boone Mall in 1981, fast food options and chain stores, and outlying apartment complexes — often within unregulated floodplains — caused flooding to be a recurrent, more frequent threat. Sometimes these pressures led to demolition of key landmarks, such as the Daniel Boone Hotel, which was demolished in the early 1980s for a condominium project. Other environmental issues surrounding
air pollution, water pollution and poor waste management were a frequent focus of concern throughout the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in occasional street protests involving App State students and local residents alike. In 1979, Boone put itself on the map as a green energy innovator through the installation of an experimental NASA wind turbine at the top of Howard’s Knob. While the wind turbine experiment was short-lived (dismantled in 1983), many local businesses and the university began exploring ways to promote sustainability and environmentally sensitive development—a major priority for many in the Boone community, including town government, to this day. Meanwhile, in response to development concerns, Boone’s government also implemented zoning changes, including the 1983 creation of an Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) to serve as a development buffer between Boone and the largely unrestricted parcels of the county, in the hope of protecting Boone from the effects of adverse development just outside its boundaries. New conflicts over social and political issues also surfaced during the years after the Boone Centennial. Concern over the growth of the university prompted SEE DELIGHTFUL ON PAGE 18
Image courtesy of the Palmer Blair Collection, Digital Watauga Project.
This detail crop of an image of Boone from the south shows the Junaluska hillside as it appeared in 1954. At extreme lower right is the Mountain Burley Tobacco Warehouse #1, presently the site of the Watauga County Library, with the Junaluska community spread across the hillside to the north and west. Development pressures and gentrification remain threats for the historically Black neighborhood, which was commemorated with a Town of Boone historical marker in 2021.
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 17
DELIGHTFUL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 many locals to perceive the students as outsiders whose presence — rather than the growth management policies of the university itself — was destroying the character of their community. Perhaps the only issue more contentious during this period than college students clamoring for voting rights in the community where they lived was the decision in 1986 to allow local businesses to serve alcohol. Prior to that year, Boone had been a dry town since at least the 1920s, and locals and college students alike routinely paid cabbies to drive to distant communities like Calhoun Falls to acquire booze for them. That fight would continue well into the 1990s, when it was finally put to rest. Other protests of the 1970s focused on campus
18 | BOONE 150 | 2022
growth, tree cutting, and pedestrian safety. While some of these issues have been resolved, other issues remain, highlighting the ongoing tensions among university, town, and county. In 2014, for example, a targeted effort by some local residents and developers resulted in the North Carolina legislature revoking Boone’s ETJ law, making it more difficult for Boone to control development just outside its borders. This change has led to projects located just outside town limits that have poor records on erosion control, solid waste management, and sewage discharges into local waterways. Sadly, ill-informed residents often blame Boone officials who have no leverage over these projects, rather than holding accountable the county officials who do. Other disputes have surfaced between the county and
Image courtesy of the George Flowers Collection, Digital Watauga Project.
Much of the Boone Mall’s northeast parking lot sits in a floodplain at the confluence of Hodges, Winkler, and Boone Creeks and frequently floods during heavy rain. In this 1980s image, a tow truck removes the car of a patron who learned the hard way. the town in recent decades, including a nearly decade-old fight over apportionment of taxation that is still tied up in the courts. Meanwhile, the specter of a catastrophic flooding event still looms over Boone, with mid-scale flooding
events becoming more frequent and more intense over the past two decades, largely as a result of climate change. Tensions between the university and the town have SEE DELIGHTFUL ON PAGE 20
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DELIGHTFUL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 percolated in recent years, too, often over the university’s attempts to establish a permanent presence within Boone’s downtown business district or surrounding the perception that the university is shifting responsibility for housing its students onto the private sector. Escalation of development initiatives, primarily over new mixed-use housing complexes such as The Standard, Rivers Walk, and King Street Flats, but also involving demolition of landmarks such as the Oscar and Suma Hardin House, the second Wade Brown Law Office, and the Boone Bus Depot, finally prompted the Town of Boone to adopt a Downtown Boone Local Historic District in 2021 as a means for protecting the architectural and historic character of its downtown business district. Meanwhile, the Town of Boone has also stepped up its efforts to preserve and interpret its past, saving the Appalachian Theatre from demolition in 2011, acquiring and rehabilitating
the Boone Cemetery in 2014 and 2015, initiating a comprehensive historical marker program in 2018, and designating the Downtown Boone Post Office (2016), the Frank A. Linney House (2017), the Linney Law Office (2017), and the Blue Ridge Tourist Court (2021) as Local Historic Landmarks. Moving successfully into Boone’s next 150 years will mean having to grapple with Boone’s ongoing identity crisis. Tensions among the university, the county, and the town have reached a stage where officials from all three groups must learn to work together for their mutual success and common good, rather than focusing on outmaneuvering one another or trying to get the upper hand. The alternative is a long, hard road where ongoing conflict not only wastes local resources at the expense of our citizens, but also fails to get any of us where we hope most to be going. My anniversary message to Boone, Watauga County, and the university is to ask all to pause and reflect on our shared and diverse local history, consider what we have come from and where we have
Image courtesy of the George Flowers Collection, Digital Watauga Project.
In May 1975, 125 ASU students held a protest march to the Watauga County Courthouse, where they demanded that they be permitted to register to vote. Fred A. McGee, Jr., seated, was nevertheless told he could not register, despite being a resident of the area. 20 | BOONE 150 | 2022
Image courtesy of Eric Plaag.
The Appalachian Theatre, which opened in 1938 and closed in 2007, was nearly demolished before the Town of Boone acquired it in 2011. Over the next eight years, the board of the Appalachian Theatre of the High Country worked tirelessly to renovate the theater and restore its façade to its 1938 appearance. The theater reopened in 2019. been, then chart a path that allows all of us to move forward together toward a better, more cooperative, more selfless, and more sustainable future. Good people may disagree about how to do that, but the best people will figure out how to make it happen. As we celebrate Boone’s 150th anniversary of official incorporation this year, you will hear a whole lot more about Boone’s history. Planned initiatives include historical markers recognizing Councill’s Store, the post office and mercantile operation around which Boone was built, and the Hayes-Bryan-Greene Cemetery, which contains the graves of Boone’s first mayor and one of the donors of the land for Watauga’s county seat; interpretive panels at and guided tours of the Boone Cemetery; “Boone Reads Together,” a community reading program focused on several titles related to Boone’s history; a scavenger hunt for kids produced by Southern Appalachian Historical
Association; a sacred music event to be held at the Horn in the West Amphitheater; numerous exhibits at the Jones House Cultural and Community Center, including the Watauga County Historical Society’s upcoming exhibit on “Workers of Boone”; walking tours of downtown Boone for both kids and adults; and countless other events and activities that are still in development. And of course, what would a celebration be without a parade in July? Yes, that’s coming, too. Happy anniversary, Boone! Eric Plaag is the principal consultant at Carolina Historical Consulting, LLC, and the chairperson of the Digital Watauga Project. His recent book, Remembering Boone (Arcadia Publishing, 2021), celebrates 150 years of Boone history through more than 200 images from the Digital Watauga Project collections. All author proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to the support of the Digital Watauga Project.
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BOONE 150 | 2022 | 21
Boone
Community members through the years
Thursday, July 13, 1972
Never a dull moment in the life of a child at play and happiness in the carefree time of youth. Two children swing in “Horn” Park with a seriousness that captures their thoughts to the point that they fail to see the presence of a photographer. The days of youth are fleeting and all too soon, the children will look back on their days in the park with nostalgia and fond memories.
Thursday, July 7, 1977
Planters Planter — W.R. Cottrell and Ted Pease joined in the work to help plant the new planters that have been constructed on King Street as part of the downtown beautification project.
22 | BOONE 150 | 2022
Monday, July 19, 1982 “Jim” Mukenge of Nigeria plays a guitar while “Bebe” Boitshepo Baatshwana plays the drums in a show of African music for the people at the Unity Festival.
Wednesday, July 1, 1987
An art show at the Jones House. The Extended Programming for the Developmentally Disabled program had an art showing for 50 developmentally disabled children and adults of the area Thursday evening at the Jones House in Boone. Tommy Robbins, a student in the adaptive physical education class at ASU, looks at some of the art with Sandy Steele and WHS junior Kevin Greene. Mary Turner, director of EPDD, talks with Jerry Dubois about the artwork.
Monday, July 6, 1992 The Disabled American Veterans color guard led the parade down King Street Saturday on what turned out to be a beautiful day to celebrate Boone’s 120th birthday.
Monday, Aug. 18, 1997
Scoring in levels 3 or 4 in both reading and math, Watauga County Schools’ goals were met last year and teachers and administrators are looking toward the future.
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 23
Monday, July 30, 2007
Final Fest — Country music singer Wynonna Judd performs the final concert of an Appalachian Summer Festival Saturday at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012
James Wilkes, chairperson of the Department of Computer Science at ASU, is part of the BEE Informed Partnership.
Monday, Oct. 23, 2017
Heavy rain Monday, Oct. 23, resulted in flooded areas across the county. Some places that flooded in Boone included the Boone Mall parking lot, the trailer park located on Leola Street and behind Publix, apartments on Meadowview Drive, the Walmart parking lot, the Boone Greenway and Deerfield Road.
Saturday, December 11, 2021 The December 2021 Boone Holiday Parade commenced with members from Watauga High School’s Marine Corps JROTC.
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A New County is founded FROM THE ARCHIVES It was a long way to the county seat of Jefferson, N.C., in 1848. At the time, Ashe County’s limits took in not only what would be Watauga County, but part of the present Alleghany County, “and it could very well spare the southern portion,” Arthur noted, “which was too remote for convenience.” That year, Ashe County was represented in the State House by Reuben Mast and in the Senate by Councill’s brotherin-law “double Head” George Bower, he was so nicknamed because of his wisdom and farsightedness.
Col. Wm. L. Bryan was the first mayor of Boone after moving to the town in 1857.
Living near Valle Crucis, about 35 miles from Jefferson, Rep. Mast found it too inconvenient for him and his neighbors to attend court. Subsequently, Councill threw his influence for the formation of a new county behind “Double Head” Bower and in 1849, Watauga County was established. Not for 23 years would the village already known as Boone become the official county seat. But Councill took immediate steps to insure it. He and Ransom Hayes, who had bought the property from the Greene Brothers, donated 25 acres apiece. And so it was determined to locate the first county courthouse in Boone. The building was constructed the following year, 1850, and stood on the hill occupied by the F.A. Linney home until 1873 when it burned. People came from far and wide to the centrally located court to hear the charges of guilt and the pleas of innocence and the eloquent banter of lawyers. Before the Civil War, Councill and Hayes kept borders, thus seeing to the needs of travelers and court attendants until about 1870. That year, the Coffey
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The third courthouse to be built in Boone was voted to be rebuilt in 1966. Brothers opened their hotel, and also in 1870, in December, Col. W. L. Bryan built and opened the Blair Hotel. On the site of the Blair Hotel, Squire James W. Council and Elishe Green had erected the frame of a large hotel when in the spring of 1865, Col. George W. Kirk and his Union regiment. Kirk’s men used the timber from the unfinished hotel to make a stockade around the courthouse. After attending school in his home community of Meat Camp. William Lewis Bryan moved to Boone in 1857 to
become a clerk, shoemaker, store owner, historian, United State Commissioner, and first mayor of the newly-chartered Town of Boone. He served as mayor intermittently for 25 years. While his store was not bothered by Gen. George Stoneman and his men in 1865, robbers later stole all he had. When in his seventies, the Colonel revealed upon the D.A.R. to mark the fabled trail of Daniel Boone and the build the Daniel Boone monument. This story originally appeared in the 1972 centennial edition of the Watauga Democrat.
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Town History began in 1820 FROM THE ARCHIVES The land on which the Town of Boone one day would stand had belonged to the Greene brothers, John and Jerry. It was primeval woodland, feeding three branches down the curving valleys to the New River. But it was an inland country, long miles from the rich bottomlands that were ripe from farming. The first settlers set up a house where the water was plentiful: Beaver Dams, the banks of Cove Creek, the Watauga River country called Valle Crucis, and Meat camp Creek. It was later that interest developed in the Boone Valley where Benjamin Howard first grazed his cattle in 1769 and where Daniel Boone is said to have hunted. Eventually, one of the Green Brothers sold his land to Jordan Councill Jr. and the other’s deed went to Ransom
The Town of Boone’s Water and King street intersection featured rolling hills pictured about 120 years ago. Hayes. Councill then built a large house and a store. “What is now Boone was for years known as Councill’s Store, and as early as 1835 a post office was in existence there,” said John Preston
Arthus, a historian, in the 1972 centennial edition of the Watauga Democrat. Arthus also states that Councill was the only merchant in the valley until 1849.
Photo courtesy of the Digital Watauga Project.
An aerial view of Appalachian State University and Boone circa the 1950s or ‘60 28 | BOONE 150 | 2022
The first to come to live here, in addition to Jordan Councill Sr. whose house stood a few hundred yards east, were Ben Munday and family, Ellington Cousins and family, and B.J. Crawley who also owned a store. Councill built a house on the corner of what is now King and South Water streets for his tanner, Jesse McCoin, as well as a second house for another tanner, Robbery Sumter. The tanners left here in 1856 and Col J. B. Tod rented the home where McCoin had lived. In 1860, Capt. J. L. Phillips of Todd bought the property from Councill. When the war began, Capt. Phillips served under Col. John B. Pamer in the 58th North Carolina Regiment and “was shot in the forehand by a pistol bullet during a battle in Tennessee,” according to Arthur, “and while in a hospital his brains actually oozed out of the wound.” SEE HISTORY ON PAGE 29
HISTORY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 In 1865, Dr. J. G. Rivers bought the home, and four generations lived there. Next to be built in Boone was the James Tatum storehouse, which stood where Mayor and Mrs. W. L. Bryan would later live. Construction in town picked up steadily. Jordan Councill put up a small room for a bookmaker, Solomon Crisp, who did business — and sold some whiskey — from 1850 to about 1957. Early in the 1850’s, B. J. Crawley came from Forsyth County and built a storehouse and dwelling on Water Street, “just across the branch from the Watauga County Bank.” As for Solomon Crisp, who would eventually serve in the
Col. Joe B. Todd became
Colonel of the 98th N.C. militia and in May of 1861 became first lieutenant of Company D, First Calvary, organized in Boone at the outset of the Civil War. Civil War and return to his native Calwell County, he sold out to two widowers, Allen Myrick and Noah White, who
ran the store from 1857 until 1862 when they moved to Texas. The Blair Hotel was built, and opposite it, the James W. Councill house. Just east of the hotel, Levi Hartley of Caldwell County built a house for a whiskey saloon, handing its management over to two sons, Nathan and Samuel. They were in the business until the eve of the War Between the States. This property was later bought by T.J. Coffey, who added to it, and later moved into the Hall house. Young Samuel Hartley reputedly married a girl whose father “lost his mind trying to invent an augur which would bore a square hold. After the war, Samuel died in Lenoir. He was a good and respected citizen. A blacksmith shop and another residence were added to the community by
George and Phillip Grubb. “They swapped this property for Josn Frazer for property in Taylorsville, N.C.” After he served in the war in 1861, Frazer returned here before moving onto Caldwell County. George Grubb gave up his anvil and forge, while brother Phillip left the area about 1860, never to return. All this development came about because of three sawmills, the first of which Jordan Councill purchased. Within a couple of miles of Boone, the mills operated, Arthur recalls, “for the sole purpose of producing lumber with which to build the new town of Boone, and must have been in operation about 1849 or 1850.” This story originally appeared in the 1972 centennial edition of the Watauga Democrat.
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The date of this J. N. Bawgus photograph (which was also published in a 1972 edition of the Watauga Democrat) is perhaps 1921 or 1922, but it contains many landmark buildings. Beginning at left are: 1, the original Watauga Democrat office; 2, the Nathan Horton House; 3, just to the right of the Horton place, the Jim Moretz Store building; 4, (shrouded in trees) the Linney home; 5, the original Watauga County bank; 6, the old city hall building; 7, the Critcher Hotel; 8, early residences on Grand Boulevard; 9, the Tom Greer house; 1-. the narrow-guage “wye” of the Linville Railway Company. The street at the center of the photograph is Depot Street. The photographer stood slightly west of what was formerly the home of Appalachian President Herbert Wey.
Boone becomes a town One hundred and fifty years ago, Boone was chartered as a town in Watauga County. Below is the wording of the charter from “History of Watauga County” by Dr. Daniel J. Whitener that originally appeared in a 100th anniversary special edition of the Watauga Democrat in 1972. 1871-72—Chapter 50. “AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE TOWN OF BOONE IN THE COUNTY OF WATAUGA. Section 1. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA DO ENACT, that the town of Boone, in the County of Watauga, is hereby incorporated in a body of politic and corporate by the name and style of the Commissioners of the town of Boone. Section 2. That the corporate limits of said town shall be as follows: One mile east, west, north, and south from the court house, then a line shall be marked out commencing at the 30 | BOONE 150 | 2022
terminus of the mile running east of the court house; thence to the terminus of the mile west of the courthouse; thence to the mile south of the court house; thence to the terminus of the mile east of the courthouse, the beginning. Section 3. That J. W. Councill, Dr. J. G. Rivers, T. J. Coffey, J. W. Hall, and J. B. Todd be appointed commissioners of said town, and shall hold said office of commissioner until their successors shall be elected and qualified. Section 4. That W. L. Bryan be appointed mayor of said town, and to hold office until his successor shall be elected and qualified. Section 5. That the election of mayor and commissioners shall be held on such day as the legislature shall prescribe, and in case of failure on the part of the legislature to prescribe such day, then on such day as the county commissioners may
prescribe: PROVIDED. Such election shall be held annually. Section 6. That the officers herein named and their successors shall have all the power, immunities, and shall be subject to all the restrictions and liabilities as are enumerated in chapter one hundred and eleven of the “revised code,” except that the county commissioners shall be substituted for a county court, named in that chapter of laws. Section 7. That all laws and clauses of laws coming in conflicted with this act are hereby repealed. Section 8. This act shall be in force from and after its ratification Ratified the 23rd day of January, A. D., 1872.” “CHAPTER XXXI. AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER FIFTY OF PRIVATE LAWS OF ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-ONE AND ONE THOUSAND EIGHT
HUNDRED AND SEVENTY TWO, ENTITLED AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE TOWN OF BOONE, IN WATAUGA COUNTY: Section 1. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA DO ENACT, That section two of chapter fifty, private laws of one thousand eight hundred and seventytwo, be amended so as to read as follows: that the corporate limits of said town shall be as follows: Beginning at a stake one-half mile north of the courthouse, and running thence to a stake one-half mile east of the courthouse, thence to a stake one-half mile south of the courthouse, and thence to the beginning. Section 2. This act shall take effect from and after its ratification. Ratified the 26th day of February, 1873.
Though so much has changed in healthcare in the past 91 years, access to a wide range of state-of-the-art healthcare services in the High Country has never been better than it is right now. And improvements continue to be made daily. On the Watauga Medical Center campus on Deerfied Road, construction on a new bed tower is evidence of this commitment to the provision of exceptional healthcare for our family, friends and neighbors in the High Country. A rendering of the first hospital in Boone, Watauga Hospital. It was established in 1931 and was located on the Appalachian State University campus.
An artist rendering of Watauga Medical Center’s new Patient Care Tower that is currently under construction.
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Scan the QR code to follow the expansion progress at Watauga Medical Center
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 31
Preserving Black history Junaluska Heritage Association raises awareness of western NC’s oldest Black community BY MARISA MECKE Up North Street and sweeping up Junaluska Road sits one of the longest lasting Black communities of Western North Carolina. The first records of the Junaluska community date back to the 1850s, according to the Junaluska Heritage Association. Today, members of the community are still living in Boone and working to preserve the community’s important cultural history. “People don’t know that we’re here,” said Roberta Jackson, a founding member of the Junaluska Heritage Association. Jackson has lived in Boone her entire life and said in 2011 members of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church who were working on reparations for their part in slavery, reached out to her church, the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church, which in turn began the Junaluska Heritage Association. “I’ve worked at the university for years and then it just came to my attention through some students that they didn’t even know that there was a Black community,” Jackson said. “Our goal when we set out, (was) to let people know that we were a part of Boone and that we have contributed to Boone, from the time the community was there up until now, and
Photo submitted
A scene from the Chocolate Bar, a popular social gathering spot in Junaluska in the 1960s. we’ve made some good contributions.” The Junaluska community’s location, Jackson said, has been divided into the hill and the mountain. She said the hill was North Street and that area of town and the mountain was up Junaluska road. The JHA has worked on a variety of historical preservation projects, but Jackson said the one she is most proud of is the marker in the town cemetery. She said a lot of other ideas and work came
Photo from Watauga County Public Libaries
Dated circa 1990s, this is a photograph of people on a stage in what appears to be a tent. Two men are playing guitars, while others are singing. It is reported that this is an image of Gospel Gems. Contributed to Digital Watauga’s Junaluska Heritage Collection. 32 | BOONE 150 | 2022
from that project while JHA members were researching family histories, histories in the community and seeing what the community needed or what JHA could do to raise awareness of the Junaluska community’s presence in Boone. The cemetery marker was installed in 2017 and stands in the Black section of the cemetery. The Watauga Democrat SEE JUNALUSKA ON PAGE 33
Photo from Watauga County Public Library
Dated around the 1950s, this image shows the view of Boone as seen from Rich Mountain. The Junaluska neighborhood is visible in the foreground. Contributed by Sarah Lynn Spencer and the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce to the Junaluska Heritage Collection.
JUNALUSKA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32 previously reported in October 2017 that the town of Boone surveyed the land and discovered 165 mostly unmarked graves, and the grave marker lists names of the 65 known Black residents buried in the Boone Cemetery area. JHA is also helping with landscaping around the site. Jackson said JHA’s next big mission is to get the Junaluska community designated as a historical preservation community to prevent development or encroachment that would threaten preservation. The town of Boone would ultimately decide on the designation, and Jackson said town employees are working on planning a community meeting for community members to ask questions and learn about what a historical preservation community is, what it would mean for the community and town, and what protections the designation would provide. “There’s not as many people (as there used to be),” Jackson said. “You lose what you used to have when you didn’t know it was so important, now it’s gone.” Preserving the community for future
Photo by Ian Taylor
Junaluska Heritage Association member Roberta Jackson and Boone Historic Preservation Commission Chair Eric Plaag share a handshake at the Junaluska community marker unveiling. generations is important, Jackson said, and her family has been a part of Boone for a long time. According to the Junaluska Heritage Association’s website, census documents reveal the earliest recorded African Americans in Boone lived in the area in the
1850s. The only mention of free individuals of color in the community before 1900 in census documents was Johnson and Ellington Cuzzins. According to the JHA, Johnson Cuzzins, SEE JUNALUSKA ON PAGE 34
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 33
JUNALUSKA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33 a farmer, arrived in Boone a year before his brother and family, but he ultimately lived in Boone with his white wife Charlotta and their nine children. Ellington Cuzzins was listed by the census as a shoe and boot maker and lived with his wife Margaret, who was white, and their two daughters. Census documents aren’t the only way the JHA has collected and preserved Black history in Boone. Jackson said that she and other community members worked with Susan Keefe, an anthropology professor researching modernity in the mountains at Appalachian State University, to conduct oral histories. Oral history, a method of conducting historical research through recorded interviews focusing on narrators’ personal knowledge of past events, can preserve knowledge and experiences as well as the voices of community members. On Juneteenth of 2020, the June 19 holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the U.S., a book collection of the oral histories named “Junaluska: Oral Histories
34 | BOONE 150 | 2022
of a Black Appalachian Community” was released by McFarland, a leading independent publisher of academic nonfiction. JHA’s website points to Rev. Ronda Horton’s oral history contribution to the book, recounting his experience growing up on North Street in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Horton, JHA said, lived in the community with between 15 and 18 Black families and he attended school at the Methodist church for three months out of the year before attending the Salem Mennonite Mission Church and Orphanage in Avery County, which served other Black children in the area as well. The oral history book did not just document early 1900s history, though. Jackson said the book includes many community members who lived in Boone recently or are still living in Boone. Reading the stories doesn’t feel like a distant past to Jackson, but instead gives her “the old community feeling back for people in our community.” “We’ve been a part of Boone for years and years, and we should be proud of that,” Jackson said. To learn more about the Junaluska
Photo from Watauga County Public Library
This item is a blurry black and white photograph, dated circa 1950s, of a young boy and girl standing on what appears to be a farm. They are surrounded by a fence and there is a wooden building on a hill behind them. This item is part of the Harrison-Boone-Grimes Family Home Collection of images contributed to the Junaluska collection. Heritage Association, visit its website at junaluskaheritage.org. To see archives about the Junaluska community, visit Watauga County Public Library’s “Digital Watauga” archival collection at digitalwatauga.org/ collections/show/3.
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While hard to imagine, when Watauga County was founded in 1849, local residents didn’t have electricity in their homes and businesses. Life was physically demanding. Women toted water, stoked kitchen fires and didn’t have refrigerators or freezers. Men split firewood by hand for stoves and fireplaces and read their Bibles at night by candlelight and kerosene oil lamps. After the nation’s first residents received electricity in 1882, progress was slow. More than thirty years later, there was only enough to power a few homes. In 1936, local people founded a not-for-profit electric cooperative called Caldwell Mutual Corporation. The cooperative first served 55 homes, six stores, and a few churches and schools. The cooperative began to energize Caldwell and Watauga counties by 1938. Three years later, the organization rechartered as Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation and evolved over the years, now known as Blue Ridge Energy. Today, the co-op powers more than 78,000 member-owners in Watauga and six neighboring counties. The cooperative is still in the business of improving lives by providing safe, reliable and affordable electricity. Blue Ridge Energy gives back by supporting local schools, healthcare and area helping agencies. The co-op helps develop the economy and has added two subsidiaries to help provide needed services, such as propane and heating fuels. Renewable resources are now part of its power supply. Your hometown cooperative is proud to be part of the area’s success story. As in the early days, we’re still working together to energize growth and to make life better for our members.
36 | BOONE 150 | 2022
1936 The local cooperative’s first Board of Directors – (Front row): J.M. Hart, R.R. Corpening, Mrs. C.A. Bowman and Fannie Greer. (Second row): A.G. Beach, C.L. Mast, G.W. Sullivan, Jim Laxton, C.A. Bowman, J.W. Looper and Hunter Martin, attorney.
Local people raise the first poles by hand in the area’s rugged mountainous terrain.
The Hartleys of Watauga County receive electricity for the first time.
Photo: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
1939 Contractors stop to pose for a photo ahead of continued construction.
Old and new ways merge. Mule teams plow fields, even as power lines expand across the area.
1979 This 140-foot NASA wind turbine stood atop Howard’s Knob until 1983 and produced enough energy to power 500 homes. That electricity traveled onto the grid through Blue Ridge Energy lines.
Recent Years Blue Ridge Energy recently launched Brighter Future Solar: one of the largest solar facilities in the region, which benefits members with carbon-free electricity while also producing long-term savings for members through demand reduction. The co-op also has five smaller, community solar gardens.
1949 The co-op’s 10,000th member, Ed Yates, is connected in Watauga County. Electricity transformed the lives of rural women. With electric appliances, they could cook, iron, wash laundry and dishes, refrigerate food, and even bathe with much greater ease. Home economics agents, employed by the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, taught women how to use these appliances.
Continuous improvement ensures reliable, safe, affordable electricity for years to come.
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 37
Remembering Boone BY MATTARAE STASKEL On behalf of the Watauga County Historical Society, Dr. Eric Plaag wrote the book “Remembering Boone” as tribute to Boone’s 150th anniversary. The book features historical photos from Digital Watauga and showcases Boone throughout the last 150 years. Plaag, a volunteer chairperson for Digital Watauga, wrote the book with the goal to create something that gave the community a permanent keepsake for the occasion while also using resources they have access to through Digital Watauga. The chapters are arranged chronologically, giving readers a sense for Boone’s timeline since before it was founded in 1872. “Remembering Boone” demonstrates the cause and effect relationship of Boone’s history through photos that show the growth of the town. After pitching the idea for the book to Arcadia Publishing, they gave a deadline of just a few months, which was considerably less time than was originally planned, Plaag said. With the process sped-up, Plaag began selecting images and writing captions for the book. “The good news is in terms of that process, I know our collections pretty well,” Plaag said. “So I already had in mind images that I knew would fit with a story.” According to Plaag, Digital Watauga has 13,000 items online, another 10,000 items that are digitized but not yet online, and another 200,000 items, as a part of the George Flowers collection, that have yet to be processed. George Flowers, a photographer in Boone, donated his collection to the organization, which consisted of studio portraits, crime scene photos and work from his time as a photographer. The collection is estimated to have around 4 million negatives and prints from his 40 38 | BOONE 150 | 2022
years in business. The estimated millions of prints and negatives, however, were missing. As Plaag attempted to locate the George Flowers collection, he found that all of the portraits had been donated to Appalachian State University, which was projected to be around half of the photos. With his search for the remaining photos continuing on, Plaag received a call from Watauga County Maintenance saying that they found several boxes of photographs along with a sign that said “Flowers Photography” in a building on Howard Street in Boone. Unfortunately, the photographs were stored in the basement of this building, and due to several floods from Boone Creek, many of the photos in the collection were destroyed, leaving the estimated 200,000 unprocessed negatives and prints. Boone was essentially built around Watauga Academy, Appalachian State
University’s predecessor, after it opened in 1899. “I really do think it’s an interesting story of this kind of sleepy county finally finding its mojo when Watauga Academy opens,” said Plaag. The book explores the synergy between the town and school, along with the crisis of identity that it brought along as well. “And that, to me, was just a great story arc to show through pictures,” said Plaag. As a historian, Plaag already knew a lot about the history of Boone, but the process of writing the book offered an opportunity to learn something new. In the 70s, when Boone was a dry town, there was a cab stand in front of the Dan’l Boone Inn where people could slip the cabbie a $20 bill and they would travel to the nearest wet town to buy a case of beer and drive it back to Boone. “It was its own form of bootlegging in a way,” said Plaag. “It was hard for me to imagine that there was this much animosity in the 70s still over whether the town should be wet or dry.” Through this research, it has become apparent that history really does repeat itself. In the early 2000s, there was an attempt to reinstate Boone as a dry town. “There are these issues that don’t die, that they just keep resurfacing here. And we argue about them every five years. And so that was an eye opener,” said Plaag. All “Remembering Boone” proceeds go to the Watauga County Historical Society and Digital Watauga as opposed to Plaag. “The book is meant to benefit our project and our community,” said Plaag. To purchase “Remembering Boone”, visit the Watauga County Historical Society website store at wataugacountyhistoricalsociety.org/shop. The book can also be purchased locally through stores such as Mast General Store and Foggy Pine Books.
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 39
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The biggest little chain around
Boone Drug: Serving the community for more than 100 years BY MOSS BRENNAN Boone Drug Company is one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in Boone. Founded in 1919, Boone Drug continues to be a health provider in the community. “Here’s a little tidbit of information most people don’t know,” current Boone Drug owner Corey Furman said. “The original location for Boone Drug is not what people think. It’s actually the candy barrel. That was the original SEE SERVING ON PAGE 43
Happy 150th neighbor!
42 | BOONE 150 | 2022
Photo courtesy Boone Drug
George Kelly Moose, Wayne Richardson and O.K. Richardson who were the early founders and owners of Boone Drug.
SERVING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 42 Boone Drug store. We were there for two years.” Dr. George Kelly Moose founded Boone Drug Company in 1919. He had met John R. McNairy, who owned a pharmacy in Lenoir who was in search of a business partner. After returning to North Carolina with his pharmacy degree, he and McNairy established the Boone Drug Company. The first Boone Drug was the typical pharmacy and soda fountain. It was a place people could meet up with their neighbors and bring their children to enjoy sweets. For current Boone Drug owner Corey Furman, it was where he grew up. “I grew up in the environment of Boone Drug,” Corey Furman said. “People ask me when did you start working for Boone Drug? And the answer is I started working for Boone Drug as soon as I could carry trash. I would come over after school and File photo I would do my homework at the soda Officials gather together to commemorate the 100 years of service of Boone Drug. fountain at our King Street location. Pictured left to right are Jim Furman, John Stacy, Joe Miller, Corey Furman and Rep. SEE SERVING ON PAGE 44 Virginia Foxx.
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SERVING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 43
Photo courtesy of Digital Watauga, contributed by Sarah Lynn Spencer and Boone Area Chamber of Commerce and part of the Palmer Blair Collection
This image taken in June 1956 shows the interior of the Boone Drug on King Street with its original lunch counter configuration at left and booths visible at right.
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And back then we had video games and arcades in there. And so I’d come and do my homework and then I would take out the trash, I’d clean up, stock the bottles. I’d play video games for a of couple hours as my reward and read comic books. So that’s how I get started.” His dad, Jim Furman, started working for Boone Drug in the mid-60s. At the time, Jim Furman said they had expanded from one store in 1919 to about three stores. In the late 60s, Jim Furman became a part owner of Boone Drug Company. “I was a pharmacist and we just worked between the stores,” Jim Furman said. “It was quite an experience for those years that we all worked there together.” For Jim Furman, working at Boone Drug was like working with his brothers. It was “the best working conditions I’ve had.” He had many fond memories of working at Boone Drug that included the occasional prank or two among his colleagues. “Boone (was just) a nice place to live, a nice place to grow up, a nice place to raise children and a nice place to work,” Jim Furman said. Around that same time Jim Furman started, John Stacy also came to work at Boone Drug and also eventually became a part-owner. “It was a great job over my career, met lots of people,” Stacy said. “We had good health care. I think it was very valuable (to the) community. Really (we were) known as the biggest little chain around hometown pharmacies.” According to Boone Drug, customers adored founder
George Moose for his “good sense of humor and dependable service.” People would walk from miles away to get their medicine from Boone Drug in the early days of the company. Today, Corey Furman still believes people rely on and trust Boone Drug. He said they’ve always felt pride in the community and that they would work to do anything they could to help the community when needed. That was evident when COVID-19 vaccines became available to the public. When COVID-19 tests and the vaccine became available, Boone Drug was one of the largest providers in the area. On the COVID-19 testing side, Corey Furman said their supplier told them Boone Drug was his No. 1 account. Boone Drug also integrated with AppHealthCare to provide COVID-19 vaccines. “We came in just to assist,” Corey Furman said. “I don’t want to draw too much credit to be Boone Drug. That really was the hospital and the health department’s baby. They did a fantastic job. We were just there to help. We offered our facilities. We partnered with other organizations in town to help with logistics and labor to help make sure we had enough people there to take care of the community and we helped shoulder that burden of running vaccination clinics around the town.” Just like in 1919, Boone Drug will continue to help the Boone community as needed. “I think the services that we provide at Boone Drug kind of mirror that need that we see within the community,” Corey Furman said. To read about the full history of Boone Drug, visit boonedrug.com/about-us.
Congratulations Boone on turning 150!
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Signs of healthy growth Watauga health care facilities through the years BY MARISA MECKE As much as people try to avoid getting sick, every community needs a doctor and it needs medical services. Boone has been served by institutions such as the Watauga Medical Center and Appalachian Regional Healthcare System for years and as the population grows so have the options for health care. An institution in Boone, Boone Drug Company was founded by Dr. George Kelly Moose in 1919. A law graduate from Georgetown, he entered business with a friend who convinced Moose to go to pharmacy school, and the two
opened Boone Drug Company, according to Boone Drug Co.’s website. Not long after Boone Drug Company welcomed customers to its pharmacy, Dr. Henry B. Perry moved into Boone’s first hospital facility in the Lovill House Annex, according to ARHS. In the 1930s, the Watauga Hospital on the campus of Appalachian State Teachers College (which later became Appalachian State University) opened at the hands of Blanford B. Dougherty. According to ARHS, Dougherty cobbled together money and land from the state of North Carolina and a grant from the
Duke Endowment to create the hospital where students could receive “rudimentary” nursing care paid for by a $1.50 health fee collected at the beginning of the school year. The original location of Dougherty’s infirmary, according to ARHS, was where the Dan’l Boone Inn is currently located. According to ARHS, local patients could deliver babies and recuperate from illness at the Watauga Hospital, and in place of payment, compensation often consisted of a basket full of fresh produce or a ham. SEE HEALTH ON PAGE 47
David Triplett, Paige Murray and Richard Sparks turned over the first shovelfuls of dirt in the new expansion at Watauga County Hospital as seen in a Sept. 20, 1991, edition of the Watauga Democrat.
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HEALTH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 46 Watauga County Hospital operated on the university campus for 29 years, but on March 23, 1967 it began to welcome patients in a new building at its current location on Deerfield Road. According to ARHS, the original building was constructed with money allocated by the Hill-Burton Act of 1946, a piece of federal legislation signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. It’s next major expansion didn’t come until 1980, and since then, what is now known as Watauga Medical Center has consistently provided integral medical care to Boone and High Country residents. ARHS, which includes Cannon Memorial Hospital in Avery County, was officially formed in 2004 combining the services of multiple western North Carolina medical
centers. In 2005, Watauga Medical Center entered into an Affiliation Agreement with North Carolina Baptist Hospital to develop and enhance medical services for patients, according to an April 2005 press release from Atrium Health. In 2016, the Watauga Democrat reported that ARHS, which operates Watauga Medical Center, purchased 15.968 acres of land at the corner of Deerfield Road and U.S. 321 from Geer Boone LLC on July 27, 2016. The extra acreage was to create a comprehensive outpatient facility according to thenARHS President/CEO Richard Sparks, the Watauga Democrat reported. ARHS continues to grow to better meet the needs of the Boone area, and in 2017 ARHS announced that the Watauga Surgical Group joined the health care system. Located
File Photo
Darlene Greer and Margaret Arnette, operating nurses, explain operating procedures to Diana Porch and Denise Beldsoe during an open house at Watauga County Hospital as seen in a May 16, 1983, edition of the Watauga Democrat. less than a mile from Watauga Medical Center, the practice established in 1970 now provides general, vascular, cancer and thoracic surgery specialty with ARHS. In the fall of 2021, ARHS’s new hospital building reached its final height of its newly
renovated portions of the building at its Deerfield Road location, the Watauga Democrat reported on Sept. 30, 2021. The new 48-bed hospital tower will be named the Schaefer Family Patient Care Tower and is planned to be completed by the end of 2022.
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NRLP line crew from the early ages of electric utility.
NRLP since its founding BY JILLYAN MOBLEY In 1915, New River Light & Power Company was founded. A 10-foot wooden dam and power plant constructed of stone located at the lower end of the Edminsten Farm on the South Fork of the New River produced 75 kilowatts. The company had three employees and served six customers along with the Appalachian Training School. David Shearer, an Electrical Engineer and Consultant, was hired to supervise the construction and maintenance of the plant. Mr. S. McKinley Ayers of the Tennessee Eastern Electric Company came to Boone to begin work on a new power plant, and soon became the first Superintendent of NRLP in 1922. Though there were issues early on, including a flood in 1916 that left the town without electricity for two weeks. The largest issue came on March 23, 1923, when a fire destroyed the power plant and machinery. Boone was without power until July 12, 1923. Around the same time, a new plant located on the Middle Fork of the New River was constructed at a location with 48 | BOONE 150 | 2022
The first electricity in Boone came via a hydroelectric dam on the South Fork New River near today’s Boone Greenway Trail. more constant water flow that provided a more consistent current to the Appalachian Training School and the town of Boone. Just a year later, in 1924, a steam plant was built on the school’s campus. In 1926, NRLP’s first steam engine began operating and produced 180 kilowatts of electricity using 5 tons of coal per day. Meters were placed throughout Boone. Years later in 1937 and 1938, two more steam engines were installed on the school’s campus. These steam engines allowed for electric service to continue in inclement weather conditions. In August of 1940, the worst flood in the town’s
history at the time damaged the dam and machinery. Eight inches fell in 48 hours and the damage to the dam took a year to repair. The construction of the steam engines maintained electricity in Boone. These engines were replaced by a 1,000 kilowatt steam turbine generator and engine in 1945. Even more voltage was added by Blue Ridge Electric in the fall of 1963. In December 1954, IBM electronic clocks were installed to control the power plant machinery, replacing the plant operator. A hydro induction generator was installed on the Appalachian State Teacher College campus and produced
a 10 percent increase in power efficiency. As the town grew, NRLP expanded with the Oak Grove substation in 1955 in addition to the enlargement of the Physical Plant. While serving nearly 3,000 customers in 1966, a fire destroyed Appalachian State University’s Administrative Building which contained the administrative records for NRLP. After nearly 50 years of producing power, NRLP stopped generating and started bringing in electricity from Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation. In January 2022, NRLP began purchasing electricity from Carolina Power Plants, which allows greater opportunities for renewable energy. In partnership with Appalachian’s Office of Sustainability, Facilities Operations and Renewable Energy Initiative, NRLP has assisted with several energy efficiency projects, including installing solar panels and providing funding for the Broyhill Wind Turbine. NRLP serves almost 8,500 residential and commercial customers.
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Rev. Ronda Horton Inducted into WCHS Hall of Fame
STAFF REPORT Rev. Ronda David Horton (1895-1986) was named the February inductee into the inaugural class of the Watauga County Historical Society Hall of Fame. The WCHS Hall of Fame honors individuals, either living or dead, who have made significant and lasting contributions to Watauga County’s history and/or literature, including those whose efforts have been essential to the preservation of Watauga County’s history and/ or literature. As part of ongoing activities associated with the Boone SEE HORTON ON PAGE 54
52 | BOONE 150 | 2022
Photo courtesy Historic Boone Collection, Digital Watauga Project
Rev. Ronda David Horton (1895-1986) was named the February inductee into the inaugural class of the Watauga County Historical Society Hall of Fame.
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HORTON CONTINUED FROM PAGE 52 150 celebrations in 2022, the WCHS has established the Watauga County Historical Society Hall of Fame. Throughout 2022, WCHS will name 12 individuals or groups — one each month — as members of the inaugural class of the WCHS Hall of Fame. A Boone native, Ronda David Horton was the eldest of three children of June Horton and Bettie (Grimes) Horton. In oral history interviews from the 1970s and 1980s, Rev. Horton reported that his paternal grandmother had been enslaved in Caldwell County, while his mother was the descendant of Native Americans and whites who had been in the Watauga County vicinity for at least two generations. As a child, Rev. Horton was initially educated at the Boone Chapel, a Black Methodist church on the Junaluska hillside, by Ralph and Frazier Horton, as well as Rev. Coy Williams. When the Mennonites established a school at the Elk Park orphanage, around 1910, Horton boarded there and continued his
education. When the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren Conference began holding services in the Junaluska community’s Black schoolhouse on Church Street (then African Street) about 1917, Horton returned to Boone and joined the new congregation. Their new church building was completed the following year. As a teenager, Horton worked as a day laborer on a farm during the summers and in the coal fields of Virginia at other times of the year. He also worked on the original Watauga Democrat hand press as an ink roller. Horton served briefly with the 155th Depot Brigade at Camp Lee in Petersburg, Virginia, toward the end of World War I. Thereafter, he returned to Boone and found work hauling and laying gravel on the streets of Boone. In the early 1920s, he was contracted to grade South Depot Street during the “Watch Boone Grow” campaign. Later that decade, he contracted out his horse team to log for the Dewey Wright Lumber Company and others along the New River, and he also drove for the Gardner Livery Stable in Elk Park that decade. From the late 1920s through the 1940s, Horton served on the school committee
“
The WCHS stated it is
delighted to honor Rev.
Horton for his innumerable contributions to Watauga County’s and Boone’s
history, as well as his lifelong commitment to guiding and preserving the Junaluska community.
for Boone’s Black schools. In the 1930s, Horton also served as assistant to the Rev. Peter Siemens at the Mennonite Brethren Church in Elk Park and began preaching in 1932. Horton then substituted for Siemens as Moderator for four years beginning in 1934, during which time he started the SEE HORTON ON PAGE 55
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HORTON CONTINUED FROM PAGE 54 Cove Creek Mennonite Church in Vilas. After Rev. Siemens’s return in 1938 and subsequent resignation due to ill health, Rev. Horton took over Siemens’s position as Moderator of the North Carolina District Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, serving in that role from 1955 to 1986. At Boone, Horton also worked briefly at the Daniel Boone Hotel before starting his own ice and coal business on North Depot Street, at the base of the Junaluska community, serving both Black and white patrons and earning Horton a town-wide reputation as a savvy and successful businessman. He was also a renowned and respected fox hunter who kept hounds on his property on the Junaluska hillside. But it was his leadership in the Mennonite Brethren Church that made Reverend Horton stand out most. Known as the “Moses of the Mountains,” Horton baptized many in the Junaluska community and elsewhere in the county, prompting the current pastor of the
joined the History Department faculty of Appalachian State University in 1973. Following her retirement from App State in 1996, Bond volunteered for many years with ASU’s Appalachian Cultural Museum, which interpreted the region’s history from 1989 until its closure in 2006. In addition, Bond has been a member of the Watauga County Historical Society for decades, serving as its president for much of the 21st century. She is also an inaugural and continuing member of the Digital Watauga Project Committee, the primary project of the WCHS since 2014. Honorees need not have been residents of Watauga County. The WCHS is particularly interested in honoring individuals who meet the above criteria but who may have been overlooked in traditional accounts of Watauga County’s history and literature, including women and people of color. Selections for this inaugural class were made from nominations submitted by members of the Digital Watauga Project Committee of the WCHS. Beginning in 2023, the WCHS will also consider nominations from members of the public, which in turn will be evaluated by the DWPC.
Boone Mennonite Brethren Church, the Rev. Mike Mathes, to call Rev. Horton the “heartbeat of the community” for his leadership, service, and mentorship to Boone’s Junaluska residents. He has been publicly credited by dozens of Junaluska community members for keeping the community strong and cohesive while serving as a role model for the community’s youth during the difficult years of segregation and racial injustice in the mid-twentieth century. The WCHS stated it is delighted to honor Rev. Horton for his innumerable contributions to Watauga County’s and Boone’s history, as well as his lifelong commitment to guiding and preserving the Junaluska community. For January, WCHS announced Elizabeth “Bettie” Bateman Bond has been named as the first inductee of this inaugural class of the WCHS Hall of Fame. Bond moved to North Carolina in the late 1960s, along with her husband John (a biologist), to pursue graduate work in American and Asian history at North Carolina State University. The Bonds relocated to Boone in August 1971, when John took a position in ASU’s Department of Biology. Bond
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Boone Police Department How the department grew with the town it serves
BY IAN TAYLOR When Boone turned 100 years old in 1972, it was a very different town. As it has grown over the last 50 years, the police department that serves it has grown while more people moved into the area and law enforcement changed. In 1969, a 22-year-old Zane Tester joined the Boone Police Department as a patrol officer. Tester’s hire brought the force up to three officers, including his father, then-Chief Clyde Tester. “At that time, we worked as many as 16 hours a day because Then Boone Police Chief we didn’t have a lot of police Clyde Tester inspects drugs officers,” Tester said of his early seized in 1972. days with the BPD, noting that Boone and the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office would often
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combine for two officers on patrol at once. Driving a Ford Galaxie, the town Tester patrolled had yet to grow into a tourist destination and home to a large university. Tester said that back then, everyone knew each officer by name. For much of his career, most — if not all — of the officers would be locals with family ties to the area. Based out of what is now the Eggers Law Firm office on King Street, Tester’s early years with the BPD were typical smalltown law enforcement: it was Mayberry-esque. “We always got along with the community and we watched the town grow,” Tester said. “As far as crime and all that, it wasn’t that bad,
but the atmosphere gradually changed.” 1986 was a year of change for Boone and its police department. Tester became police chief, the town allowed the selling of alcohol and the department’s size had grown with the town. While Tester said the town was never squeaky clean, with bootleggers a common arrest in Watauga’s dry years, crime stats raised with the town and university’s population growth. For many years, Appalachian State did not have their own police department like it does now. “They had a security office, so we took care of (onSEE POLICE ON PAGE 57
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POLICE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 56 campus incidents),” Tester said. “We spent a lot of time at the university, working with different clubs and the university to build that relationship. That was a lot of work to do, especially as (App State) grew.” By the time Tester retired after 30 years in law enforcement, the department had nearly 30 reserve officers, a far cry from three patrolmen. Only a few years later in 2002, Andy Le Beau moved to Boone and joined the local police department to help start a narcotics unit. “It seemed like most of the people who worked here were from here. Everybody knew each other’s parents and grandparents,” Le Beau said of the department when he joined. He noted it took a while for locals to warm up to a new
cop who had just come from Hickory, but he eventually fit right in. Working his way up to captain, Le Beau helped develop an internship program that has helped fill the BPD’s ranks with officers that come from App State with a college degree. Overseeing the internship program until taking Tester’s old mantle of chief in 2020, Le Beau said it has helped the department create a mix of officers that reflect Boone — a group that represents Boone locals and newcomers to the area. In his 20 years, Le Beau has seen the continued growth of both the university and the town around it, but the BPD has only added three officer positions during his tenure. He noted that the need for new the officers was partially related to the advancements in law enforcement technology that have occurred in his career
— with one of the positions being solely dedicated to maintaining the body cameras and taser systems. The BPD adopted body cameras in 2013 and have been big fans of the technology ever since, with Le Beau noting it has become something that can shine the light on a chaotic situation while helping clarify misremembered situations. For Le Beau, they are one of the many technologies that the BPD has picked up in recent years. “One of the things that we’ve really worked on over the last 20 years is building up our forensic program. In law enforcement, we kind of call it the ‘CSI’ effect,” Le Beau said. “We built a crime scene processing area and evidence processing area here at the police department … Things like putting DNA swabs into (the Combined DNA Index System), it would have been TV stuff only years ago and now it’s stuff we do at the
File photo
Kat Eller of Boone Police, left and Officer Farrin Page, right, of Boone Police collecting DNA evidence while Sgt. David Osborne, standing, oversees the evidence collection. police department.” Now looking at the department from the outside, Tester said he was happy with how the department has continued to grow and serve its community, something it has done with three officers or 30.
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Photo courtesy of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
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Photo courtesy of The Boone Advent Christian Church
History of Boone churches BY JILLYAN MOBLEY Boone has a long history of churches in the town with some more than 100 years old. Boone Methodist Episcopal Church South was chartered in 1866 when meetings began in the county courthouse, accord to its website. As the church grew, the congregation moved to several different meeting places until 1972 when the then 1,000 person congregation relocated to 471 New Market Boulevard. In 1939, the church united with three major branches of Methodists and became Boone Methodist Church. Years later in 1964, the Wesley Foundation building was built for Appalachian State University students who had been using church facilities. An additional educational facility was constructed in 1958. The Methodist Church united with the Evangelical United Brethren in 1968, and the church became known as the Boone United Methodist Church. The church was destroyed by fire in July of 1981 and a new building was constructed at the same site by 1984. After moving to 471 New Market Boulevard in 1972, the preschool and other ministries expanded due to the increase in space, according to the church website. The congregation still meets at this
location today. The Boone Advent Christian Church was established on Nov. 10, 1922 when it first began meeting in an Episcopal Church at the corner of Appalachian and King Streets, according to its website The meeting place was then moved to the courthouse until a new building was constructed at 220 West King Street on Aug. 22, 1926. In 1975 and 1984 the church underwent construction to expand the available ministries. These expansions are now used for a nursery, Sunday School classes, a Clerk’s office and Pastor’s study. The Reverend Gordon A. Noble served as pastor for 49 years and 1 month until he retired in 2015. The Reverend Mitch Marlowe began serving as pastor on Jan. 1, 2017, according to the church website. The Boone Advent Christian Church has been meeting at 220 West King Street since its construction in 1926, according to the church website. The first building for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, located on King Street, was donated by Squire Daniel Boone Dougherty on June 26, 1882, according to the church website. In 1903, a chancel and vestibule were added. By 1918, there were no Episcopal residents in the community and the building was used for other
services. Dr. George K. and Effie Moose are cited as the individuals that revived the church with about a dozen members in 1935. A new church was built on College Street by June of 1940. A Parish Hall was added in 1956. The congregation grew from 39 members to 99 members between 1940 and 1965, according to the website. A new church and chapel was finished by its dedication date of July 16, 1995. The current church sits on three acres at 170 Councill Street. By 1911, Rev. Tschetter began Mennonite services in what became the Junaluska community until the Boone Mennonite Church was built in 1918; the original building still stands, according to the church website. In 1927, according to the website, Rev. Rockford Hatton became an ordained minister of the North Carolina District Mennonites. He pastored the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church between 1930 and 1970. Hatton was also a champion for the Mennonite Brethren faith and instrumental in establishing Mennonite Brethren Churches throughout the mountains and foothills of North Carolina. In January 2014, Pastor Mike Mathes and his wife Venus became the current pastoral team, according to the website.
(From left) Photo of the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church, which serves as a cultural hub for the Junaluska community; The Boone Advent Christian Church has been meeting at 220 West King Street since its construction in 1926; Parishioner Fred Gilman led the procession down King Street to the new church location in 1995. More history on churches in Boone can be found by visiting each website. 60 | BOONE 150 | 2022
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45th Annual Woolly Worm Festival October 15-16 Downtown Banner Elk, NC 3rd Weekend in October
www.AveryCounty.com 64 | BOONE 150 | 2022
A History of News Long before the Civil War, Joseph C. Councill built a brick house on a dirt road which would become King Street in Boone. Constructed by Bartlett Wood and J. C. McGhee, it would later become the office building of the Watauga Democrat. The first newspaper in Boone was not the Watauga Democrat, as many may suppose, but the Watauga Journal. Its publisher was a Mooresville man named McLaughlin. A Republican, McLaughlin left soon afterwards and went to Johnson City to become chief of police. In 1888, the Enterprise took over where the Journal left off. Its owners were Judge L. L. Greene and Thomas Bingham, who ran it until the Harrison
campaign was successful that same year. Then the Democratic party and Squire Joseph Spainhour in 1888 started the Watauga Democrat. Also involved in its publication was John S. Williams. It was July 4, 1889, that R. C. Rivers, Sr., and D. B. Dougherty (father of the brothers who founded Watauga Academy) became publishers. The Rivers family owned and operated the business since 1889. Early issues of the Watauga Democrat were printed on a hand-operated press capable of printing only one page at a time. Each edition had a maximum of four pages. In 1933 Rivers handed the role of publisher to his son, Robert Campbell Rivers Jr. until 1975.
Rachel Rivers-Coffey took over as publisher of the Democrat following her father’s death in 1975. She served as publisher for almost two decades, until the Democrat was bought by Eugene and Anne Worrell, who at that time also owned the Bristol Herald Courier in nearby Bristol, Virginia and The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1997 the Worrells sold the Watauga Democrat to Arthur and Fran Powers. The Powers operated the Democrat until 2002, when it was acquired by Jones Media, owner of the rival free weekly Mountain Times. On Sept. 1, 2016, Jones Media’s assets were sold to the familyowned Adams Publishing Group, based in Minneapolis, Minn., and chaired by Steve Adams.
For 44 years, R. C. Rivers, Sr., published the Watauga Democrat, being succeeded at his death in 1933 by his son R. C. Rivers, Jr. The elder rivers was born in Carter County, Tenn. in Civil War times and was brought by his parents, James Gray and Jane Rhea Rivers, to Boone in 1865.
Happy 150th Birthday Boone!
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 65
Pioneers through the Years
Watauga High School schools serving Watauga BY MARISA MECKE County into one, according Students in Boone have to the Watauga High School graduated from the new yearbook, then called The building of Watauga High Musket. School for more than a The Musket wrote a tribute decade already, but before to the past in its 1966 edition they reached the current and celebrated the finishing location on Go Pioneers touches being placed on the Drive, generations of students “ultra-modern” new Watauga were served by a variety of High School which would elementary and high schools open in the fall for the 1967in Boone and Watauga 68 school year. County. Photo from WHS Musket “Five schools closed their Up until the 1960s, Boone The Watauga High School pictured in 1966 by the Musket, the doors and histories that a area teens were served by WHS yearbook. larger institution might be five separate high schools: born,” The Musket read. “We, Appalachian High, Bethel, the students, created the school and gave house built in 1935-1937 by workers from Blowing Rock, Cove Creek and Watauga Watauga High School its meaning; our the Works Progress Administration. After Consolidated high schools. spirit established its valor.” that, a prominent brick building was built The high schools were scattered The Musket’s tribute stated that the for the school during the 1950s. around the county and hosted only a students could not forget the past, and the The more than 80-year old school is couple of hundred students per location, former schools — Appalachian, Bethel, due for an upgrade, according to the culminating in the 1963 decision to Blowing Rock, Cove Creek and Watauga Watauga community. In 2019, the county combine the schools into one central commissioners approved a project to build Consolidated — that paved the way for the location. new Watauga High School. a new school for Valle Crucis Elementary Cove Creek High School was built in Shortly after the new Watauga High School, the Watauga Democrat previously 1922 with another building built next to it School opened its doors in the 1969-70 reported. in 1928, according to the Watauga County school year, The Musket reported the The Watauga Democrat reported in Public Library archives. In 1995, a new school opened a new vocational wing August of 2019 that in March of 2019 the elementary school was built and these of the school, growing the number of Watauga County Board of Education buildings were closed. opportunities students had to learn before approved a contract to purchase a 14.4Not long after Cove Creek High School graduating. acre tract of land, known as the Hodges was built a new elementary school was This campus lasted in the county for property, for the eventual replacement of opened in Boone. Built in 1925, according many decades, but as the population grew the old school. The property is situated to App State’s archives, the Education and technology updated the high school along Broadstone Road between the Mast Building and Whitener Hall were used for was ready for an upgrade in the new Appalachian Elementary School, otherwise Farm Inn and the Mast Store Annex — millennium. approximately one-quarter mile from the known as the Demonstration Elementary In 2010, Watauga High School’s new existing school. School for the Appalachian State Teachers School construction projects are nothing campus opened at 300 Go Pioneers Drive College (1929-1967). The archives stated in eastern Boone after three years of new for Watauga County. In the midthat the elementary school students were construction. The old building was about 1900s, the county undertook a massive taught by App State teachers and students. 45 years old after being built in 1965. construction project to consolidate all Valle Crucis Elementary School has Currently, WHS serves around 1,500 the county’s high schools into one central served Watauga County and its students students, a number which has steadily location in Boone. for decades. According to the Watauga increased in the last few years said With the passage of the “bond issue” County Public Library archives, originally in September, 1963, the county began a wood-framed schoolhouse, Valle Crucis SEE WHS ON PAGE 68 the process of consolidating the five high Elementary School has a stone school 66 | BOONE 150 | 2022
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WHS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 66 Watauga High School librarian Dana Ramseur. Ramseur said the current building is a silver level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified building, meaning the school was built with sustainable goals in mind and has integrated sustainability into design and operations. In the 2014 edition of the WHS yearbook, students reflected on their first four years at the new campus in Boone. Although some students did joke about the campus’ proximity to the town’s wastewater treatment plant, the students wrote in the yearbook’s introduction that “with the everincreasing additions of art work, signs, and posters, the building is ever evolving.” “At a school with so many traditions, and new ones always being made, students are proud to call themselves Pioneers,” the 2014 Musket wrote. Learners in Boone not only have new school buildings to enjoy and look forward to, but a thriving community of educational spaces throughout the High Country.
Notable WHS Alumni
WHS Librarian Dana Ramseur shared a few notable WHS alumni with the Watauga Democrat: Danny Triplett ‘79: Triplett participated in football, basketball and track and field at WHS and won several honors during his tenure on the teams. In 1978 he was a member of the state championship football team, won the Golden Helmet award in Asheville, was selected to paly in the 1978 Shrine Bowl, was the 1978 Asheville Citizen-Times Lineman of the Year and on Nov. 1, 2013, his #82 WHS football jersey was retired and is currently displayed on the Carroll Leather Field House at Jack Groce Stadium. Brenda Taylor and Lindsey Taylor ‘97: Brenda reached the final of the event at the 2004 Summer Olympics and also competed in the 2001 World Championships in Athletics and won a medal at the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics and won a medal at the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships in the 4x400 meter relay. After WHS, she went to medical school at Harvard University and won the hurdles at the 2001 NCAA Championships representing Harvard’s track team. After WHS, Lindsey Taylor continued her athletic career at Brown University.
Competing for the Bears, she won 10 Heptagonal titles during her career, and won several accolades such as the 1997 Female Athlete of the Year, individual state champion in the 1600 meter relay, state runner-up in the high jump and more. She was a member of the US Junior National Track and Field team as a high jumper before she was at Brown. Myke Holmes ‘00: Actor known for his work on the Walking Dead (2016), House of Cards (2016) and The Longest Ride (2015). Adam Church ‘09: a country and rock musician from Boone who has been playing shows around the High Country for several years. Church and his band have played alongside rising country star Luke Combs. Born and raised in Foscoe, Church is a WHS graduate. He played on the WHS baseball team during his time at the school. Eric Breitenstein ‘08: After WHS, Breitenstein attended Wofford College and was inducted into the Wofford Hall of Fame in 2017. His #7 Wofford jersey was also retired at Wofford in 2019. He was the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2011 and 2012 for football and the fourth player in conference history to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons.
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History of Boone exhibit created during 150th BY MATTARAE STASKEL A group of graduate students at Appalachian State University created an exhibit for the Jones House on the history of Boone as a part of their “Interpretations of Museums” class during the fall 2021 semester. The exhibit came in perfect timing – with Boone’s 150th anniversary this year, it was a great way to share the history of the town with the community, and it focuses on topics that are not as commonly talked about. Dr. Andrea Burns, the professor of the interpretations of museums class, said that the photographs that they used in the exhibit needed to be especially powerful and tell a great story. “That’s where we thought we could hook both. A tourist who has no familiarity with Boone other than a tourist town,
and then the local who might recognize a family name,” Burns said. The class focused on several aspects of Boone’s history and ended up with four different sections: how Boone became settled, the big names of Boone, the infrastructure and ordinary life in Boone. Matt Abbott, a graduate student in the interpretations of museums class, was a part of the section that focused on the prehistory of Boone, particularly Watauga County during the Civil War. “The process of what it takes to get information put together for a museum exhibit, it’s not as simple as you first think,” Abbott said. Patience was a big part of the development, as the research, narrowing down information and installation is a tedious process. Collin Jewell and Morgan
Courtney were the students that created the part of the exhibit on the everyday life of the Boone community. Within their section, the two wanted to do something a little more creative and involved for the visitors of the exhibit. We also wanted to make some kind of engagement activity, where either visitors or locals coming to visit the museum could add to these scrapbooks because you know, that’s what scrapbooks are made for,” Jewell said. The visitors of the museum were able to add their own stories into the scrapbooks; whether it be an important memory, a drawing or a story about their time in Boone. Whitney Sprinkle, Ellie McCorkle and Catie Atkinson all worked together on the section of the exhibit that dug into the
infrastructure aspect of the town. “It was really interesting,” said Atkinson. “Like looking at when different kinds of utilities came to Boone, like when the railroad came, and how that affected the construction of buildings.” “We’re just very happy to be given this opportunity to do a practical exhibit for my students to get hands-on experience,” Burns said. Mark Freed, director of cultural resources for the town of Boone, said to check boone150.com for updates about the celebration throughout the year as well as locations for the exhibit. There are also plans to have a digital version of the exhibit on the town of Boone website. “I just hope that people are able to, even if they are local, that they’re able to learn more about their own history, and how they fit into this narrative,” Jewell said.
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 69
Boone gets wet FROM THE ARCHIVES (1986) Boone wets amassed 70 percent of the vote Tuesday, legalizing the sale of beer, wine, and liquor here for the first time in 37 years. Unofficial results indicate that all three ABC issues passed with more than a 2-to1 margin. Voting precincts reported more than a 58 percent turnout from Boone’s 8,624 registered voters. A vote on the on-premises sale of malt beverages in class A hotels, motels and restaurants only, and the off-premises sale by other
70 | BOONE 150 | 2022
Bottoms up permittees passed 3,479 to 1,489. A vote on the on- and offpremises sale of unfortified wine passed 3,468 to 1,492. A vote on the operation of an ABC store passed 3,438 to 1,525. Dr. Jack Lawrence Sr., chairman of Citizens For Boone’s Best Interest, awaited the results at Greenway Baptist Church with about 20 other members of CBBI. Lawrence accepted the loss graciously, saying he would not contest the election. “The majority says it’s OK. If the majority says it’s OK, you go along with it,” he said. Another larger group, of about 800 Appalachian State University students, toasted its victory at H’Appy’s. A band called the Vibrasonics played while Dr. David McIntire announced precinct returns. When it was clear that the wets were over the top – all but Boone II had reported – the celebration began. Beers and spirits were lifted as the Vibrasonics struck up a familiar Doors tune, “Road House Blues,” which contains the lyric, “Well I woke up this morning and got myself a beer.” Student Government Association President Todd Campbell
didn’t miss the celebration at H’Appy’s. “I feel great,” Campbell said. “The students came out, the students voted and they faced everything that happened in the letters and challenges.” “We’re legal, responsible citizens. We’ve proven that tonight.” Rick Ghoens, a representative from the N.C. Malt Beverage Control Institute, had predicted a wet win, but by a smaller margin, he said. Ghoens helped organize Boone Citizens Committee for Legal Control. “I think that the community has answered that they believe in legal control,” Ghoens said. Unofficial results were announced shortly after 10 p.m. All of the precincts except Boone II, where residents vote at the town hall, had reported by 9 p.m. A line for Boone II stretched along King Street to the corner of Depot Street and was not inside the voting enclosure until after the polls closed at 7:30 p.m. The precinct finished voting at about 8:15 p.m. Mary Sue Miller, chairman of the Watauga County Board of Elections, said she was very pleased with the heavy turnout. Board member John Hovis had predicted a 60 percent turnout. “This board has always felt that we would like a 100 percent turnout because that’s one way to make sure that people have had a voice in the election,” Ms. Miller said. Problems during the day amounted to minor clerical
errors and the office received no complaints, the chairman said. “I think it went exceptionally well considering the number of people who voted,” she said. R. Kenneth Babb, elections board lawyer, visited different precincts throughout the day. He said he didn’t know of any challenge hearings that were held. A couple of people who could have been challenged left the polls voluntarily, he said. Any challenges on the tabulation of the vote are required to be made by 11 a.m. on Thursday, the hour that the vote will be canvassed and made official. Challenges on voters must be made before 6 p.m. on Saturday. Boone I, located at the Watauga County Courthouse, reported a 53 percent turnout. Malt beverage sales passed 434 to 255; unfortified wine, 426 to 262; and an ABC store, 421 to 268. Boone I totals include votes from the Brushy Fork precinct. Twenty-nine people were registered in the Brushy Fork precinct. In Boone II, 46 percent of the registered voters voted. Malt beverage sales passed 1,125 to 187; unfortified wine, 1,122 to 188; and an ABC store, 1,108 to 202. Boone III reported the highest turnout of registered voters, with 56 percent voting. Farthing Auditorium lobby was the polling place. Malt beverage sales passed 970 to SEE BEER ON PAGE 71
BEER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 70 134; unfortified wine, 970 to 134; and an ABC store, 960 to 145. New River I, with the polling place located in the Watauga High School lobby, reported a 53 percent turnout. Malt beverage sales passed 327 to 235; unfortified wine, 331 to 229; and an ABC store, 328 to 232. None of the three issues passed in New River II and III. In River II, 55 percent of its registered voters voted. Malt beverage sales were defeated 166 to 95; unfortified wine, 166 to 95, and an ABC store, 165 to 96. The lobby in Hardin Park Elementary School was the polling place. New River III reported a 50 percent turnout. Malt beverage sales failed 266 to 244; unfortified wine, 266 to
Richard Cuane, Kristy Moran and Laurel Peterson celebrated with many other ASU students at H’Appy’s on election night. 242; and an ABC store, 264 to 245. Absentee ballots accounted for 283 votes. Absentee voters cast 213 votes against the sale of malt beverages and 70 for; 214 votes against the sale of
unfortified wine and 68 for; and 215 votes for the operation of an ABC store and 67 for. Another 247 people voted transfer ballots. Most transfer voters voted in favor of all three issues. Votes in favor
of the sale of malt beverages totaled 214 and votes against, 33. Votes in favor of the sale of unfortified wine totaled 214 and votes against, 33. Votes in favor of an ABC store totaled 213 and votes against, 34.
BOONE 150 | 2022 | 71
BOONE
Then & Now BY IAN TAYLOR Boone has changed significantly since 1972. As Appalachian State University grew, so did the town around it as more and more people learned about the small but mighty mountain town. While the town today may be unrecognizable to some who last saw it 50 years ago, many aspects have stood the test of time and still carry the history of Boone with it. At the same time, the town has developed and modernized to blaze forward to new heights.
Photo by Ian Taylor
In 1972, a three-month-old bear cub from Grandfather Mountain visited the Daniel Boone Native Gardens in Boone. The bear was photographed in front of the Squire Boone Cabin as part of a publicity tour to raise support for a zoo in Asheboro.
The Squire Boone cabin, nestled in the heart of the Daniel Boone Native Gardens, has not changed since it was moved to the gardens decades ago and stands as a reminder of where Boone has come from.
An aerial view of Hardin Park Elementary School, which in 1972 had just finished construction and was awaiting its first students.
In its 50 years of history, Hardin Park has been a part of countless Boone lives as a place of learning and thriving for students and teachers.
72 | BOONE 150 | 2022
Photo by Ian Taylor
The Watauga High School Marching Pioneers during the Christmas Parade in Boone in 1972. Fifty years later, the band still represents their local high school at events.
File Photo
Watauga High School’s Marching Pioneer band has been a staple of local parades well into the 21st century.
A modular building was constructed in 1972 as the headquarters for a then-new business, Appalachian Outfitters, on Blowing Rock Road. The Watauga Democrat reported at the time that it was one of the first buildings of this kind to be used for a business in the area.
Fifty years after a crane installed their building, Appalachian Outfitters is now one of many businesses to call the Tanger Outlets “home.”
In 1972, work began on replacing sidewalks on and around King Street. While the sidewalks were being refurbished, utility lines were also added to improve the street’s appearance.
King Street has continued to grow and develop since 1972. The street and areas around it have become one of the goto stops for visitors to Boone and a haven for small businesses in the community. BOONE 150 | 2022 | 73
Lighting the way STAFF REPORT The 1930s. A marvelous new invention called electricity had arrived in the cities, in the midst of the Great Depression. Rural residents watched from afar as it energized progress. In Watauga County and the surrounding rural areas, hardworking families dreamed of a brighter, better life for themselves and their neighbors with the help of electricity. But the for-profit utilities weren’t interested in bringing power to rural homes and communities. So, these people banded together to help themselves — and future generations. In 1936, western North Carolina’s men and women formed their own not-for-profit electric cooperative: Caldwell Mutual Corporation, which rechartered as Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation five years later. In a tremendous team effort, they mapped out power line routes on rough paper maps and secured signatures for sign-ups. They pitched in to clear rights-of-way and dug holes for utility poles. Crews hung the power lines, and the lights came on. Life did improve. Long days of manual labor were gone. Electricpowered appliances and farm equipment brought growth and prosperity. Today, the area still benefits from the commitment of those early cooperative leaders. Electricity energizes progress in local communities and powers the local economy. People enjoy the comforts, conveniences and technology that power provides. Blue Ridge Energy — still the area’s hometown electric cooperative — today provides power to nearly 80,000 member-owners. Those members, as well as people and businesses moving into the area, depend on it. As it always has, the 74 | BOONE 150 | 2022
cooperative works to keep members’ bills as low as possible. Blue Ridge continually improves its power delivery system. This includes upgrading existing equipment and technology, as well as incorporating new additions. Balancing its energy supply with both traditional and renewable power generation, helps keep costs affordable and power flowing to members. From the beginning, Blue Ridge Energy has also demonstrated a defining characteristic of the cooperative difference: a heart for the people and communities it serves. This includes providing scholarships for students and funding innovative classroom projects. It means providing, through our Members Foundation, crisis heating assistance and grants to local entities that also help our members. The co-op is also a powerful partner for progress in its communities by helping the local economy thrive, supporting critical services such as broadband and healthcare, and taking the next steps forward in powering a brighter, cleaner future. It’s true that some things never change. Through more than eight decades, the cooperative has never wavered in its commitment to delivering the reliability, affordability and cooperative care that its members and communities count on. Blue Ridge Energy proudly serves in ways that honor its unique history and those who forged the way while progressing with the needs of today’s members. If the cooperative’s founding members were alive today, they might be amazed at the progress and growth in this area they called home — and proud of the bright future they helped bring to life. Perhaps they’d encourage us to celebrate where we are and remind us to keep lighting the way together, toward an even brighter future.
Onlookers in Watauga County watch as a line technician, with no bucket truck to help, hangs the lines to make their dream of electricity a reality.
Henry Dewan, the cooperative’s first engineer, attends the 1938 setting of the first pole in Watauga County.
Douglas Meyers
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Crossnore Communities for Children congratulates the Town of Boone on your 150th Anniversary! We appreciate the citizens of Boone for their support of Crossnore and the children and families we serve. For more information about Crossnore and how you can get involved, visit crossnore.org.
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APP STATE
Then & Now Between 1970-71, approximately 6,665 students were enrolled at the Appalachian State University. Today, App State has 20,641 undergraduate and graduate students. During 1972, there were many events at Appalachian State University that paved the way to where the university is today, 50 years later. In terms of academics at Appalachian State, the university began to offer a Bachelor of Technology degree that year, as well as a course in women’s history according to Appalachian State’s Special Collections Research Center. 1972 was also the first publication of the Appalachian Journal, a peer-reviewed quarterly that talks about a variety of topics of scholarly interest. Also in 1972 was the first year that the first African-American woman was appointed to any court at App State. Judy Gentry, a freshman at the time, was appointed by the Student Senate to the Homecoming Court. In 1972, Watauga Residential College was founded and included 100 freshmen, and 20 sophomores, juniors and seniors according to Appalachian State’s Special Collections Research Center. That same fall, the first co-ed dorm, Watauga Hall, was introduced. Now, the vast majority of the dorms on campus are co-ed. During this year, freshmen women were granted the ability to have the same curfew privileges as upperclassmen women according to Appalachian State’s Special Collections Research Center. Prior to this change, the women were required to return to their dorms before curfew. With the new rules in place, they were allowed to leave before curfew and were not required to return. Leaving after curfew was still prohibited. In November 1972, the Beach Boys performed at App State. Also during this year, the Chancellor, Dr. Herbert W. Wey, ended rumors by announcing that Appalachian State would not be changing its name to UNC Boone. 76 | BOONE 150 | 2022
Photo courtesy of Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections
A look at App State’s campus from above when the baseball stadium was near Rivers Street.
A look at App State’s campus as it looks today.
Photo courtesy of App State
Photo courtesy of App State
A look at App State’s campus as seen today with new forms and a new endzone facility at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Photo courtesy of Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections
This image shows a view of the campus dormitories on the western side of campus from the B. B. Dougherty Administration Building at Appalachian State University (1967-current) on March 25, 1968. Visible are East Residence Hall, built 1952, Lovill Residence Hall, built 1966, and White Residence Hall, built 1966. The Home Management House, built 1965, and the frame for Cone Residence Hall, completed 1968, can be seen on the left.
Photo courtesy of Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collection
This image shows the Appalachian State Teachers College (1929-1967) campus around 1962-63. Visible in the foreground are Rankin Science Hall, built 1963 and still under construction, and the Men’s Gymnasium, built 1934. In the background are the second Administration Building, built 1924, Dauph-Blan/Watauga Hall, built 1929, the first White Hall, built 1924, the Women’s Gymnasium, built 1924, North Hall, built 1938, and the Faculty Apartments, built 1953.
Photo courtesy of Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections
This image shows part of the Appalachian State Teachers College (1929-1967) campus in the 1960s. Visible are the rear views of the Home Management House, built 1965, Faculty Apartments, built 1938 and later renamed Coffey Hall, and North Hall, built 1940 and later renamed Workman Hall. Bowie Residence Hall, built 1966, can be seen in the distance.
File photo
The 200,000-square-foot Belk Library and Information Commons, which is open to students and community members alike.
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Folk formally takes ‘seat’ on Boone Town Council FROM THE ARCHIVES Boone’s local government formally confirmed its millennial crew Thursday night, as newly elected Dana Folk and re-elected incumbents Dempsey Wilcox and Jimmy Smith joined incumbent Mayor Velma Burnley in swearing-in ceremonies. Folk, Wilcox and Smith will team with sitting members Loretta Clawson and Max
Schrum on the Boone Town Council for the next two years. Judge Alexander Lyerly of North Carolina’s 24th Judicial District conducted the ceremony to Dana Folk an audience of Folk supporters, local officials and other citizens at the
council’s December meeting. Folk, a resident of Boone’s Junaluska community, was the top vote-getter in Boone’s Oct. 5 elections, in which incumbent Tim Wilson failed to get enough votes to retain the council seat he won in 1997. As a result of persistent questions about financial reporting and accountability, Wilson announced in August plans to terminate the contract
he had held since 1975 to serve the county with his company, Watauga Ambulance Service. Craig Estep and Lee Sullivan, former employees of Wilson’s, took over the service, renamed Watauga Medic Inc., on Dec. 3. Dana Folk was the first Black person to hold a seat on the Boone Town Council and served December 1999 to December 2003, according to Boone officials.
Holshouser: First Boone native elected governor FROM THE ARCHIVES
Holshouser is Winner! Election day in Watauga County was without exception one in which record turnouts of voters to the polls was recorded. It was also one in which long lines could be seen as voted were waiting to take turns at marking ballots. The best unofficial figures allied at Election Headquarters in the Watauga Courthouse when the last precinct called in showed an 82 percent turnout of the almost 12,000 voters registered in the county. There were a few minor incidents where poll keepers were challenged on qualified voters, but these were of no consequence and it was believed that unofficial tallies will hold for the most part in the 18 townships. It took the vote counters longer than usual to get the large number of ballots checked and, consequently, it was about 10 p.m. before the first township called in a report — Northfork, where almost 100 voted. It was after 5 a.m. before those working at the polls for their jobs were completed. Republican governorship was 78 | BOONE 150 | 2022
Nancy West, left, a Boone No. 1 precinct worker, hands ballots to North Carolina’s new first lady Pat Holshouser, center and the new N.C. governor Jim Holshouser, right, while daughter Ginny, right front, watches, as shown in the Nov. 9, 1972, edition of the Watauga Democrat. dream of Jim’s dad Boone residents and all Wataugans awoke Wednesday morning to find that a fellow citizen had been elected to the office of governor of North Carolina. Jim Holshouser, 38, in a statement at about 2:40 a.m., declared he was proud to accomplish something his father, Judge J. E.Holshouser, had long awaited, “a Republican governor in Raleigh. I hope to keep the confidence of all those who voted for me and make this state a good governor during the next four years,” the winner by 50,000 votes declared.
When most had gone to bed on election night, Holshouser was trailing by a slim margin, Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles. But, by 3 a.m., Bowles conceded to Holshouser. The latest count at press time, with 94 percent of all precincts in North Carolina counted, Holshouseer had 701,338 votes or 52 percent, to Bowles 653,817. American Party candidate Arlis Pettyjohn got 8,265 votes.
Local Will Be First GOP Governor Since 1900 Republicans in Watauga County and throughout the state were having a happy Nov.
8 having elected their first Republican governor in the state since the turn of the century and having reelected the president by the widest margin in history. James E. Holshouser, Jr., a native of Boone, edged out Democratic candidate Hargrove (Skipper) Bowles in a contest that gave the Democrat a sizable lead early in the race; as precincts poured in, the western and piedmont areas of the state gave the Republicans a strong endorsement. When Holshouser goes to Raleigh, he will be working with a Democrat as lieutenant governor. Jim Hunt was declared an early winner and although final count of votes was not immediately available, he took a landslide victory over Republican Johnny Walker and the American Party’s candidate, Ben McLaden. On the local Watauga County level, voters turned out in record forces, approximately 82 percent of the registration, to give substantial endorsement to the Republican candidate with the only Democrat returning to office being Watauga County Register of Deeds Miss Helen Underdown defeated Republican candidate JeanetteHenderson by a margin of less than 400 votes.
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