Highways and Proposed R. and R., Weaning Ashe From Virginia. . . Tennessean Hauls Truck Load of Chickens 66 Miles to North Wilkesboro
The following story is part of a story written by Fred A. Olds about a tour through the “Lost Provinces,”—that part of which is of special interest to our readers:
The first one took us as far as Tennessee, which sticks out like a V into the corner of Watauga and Ashe counties, by the road one now has to travel from Boone, the county seat of Watauga, to Jefferson, the county seat of Ashe. Zionville, the last town in northwest Watauga, is on the line of Tennessee and there one says farewell for three miles to highway and drop into Tennessee mud and rocks a shaft of a hundred years in a moment. It is, as the sign at the Tennessee boundary says, 243 miles to Raleigh by way of the Daniel Boone Trail from Winston-Salem. We ground over the rocks, we wallowed through the mud and out of breath from the bumping came, like a fish into Ashe county and a fine gravel highway, which the county built from Jefferson to the border-line. Our auto fairly leaped with joy. While in Tennessee we had met a Tennessean with a truck load of chickens on his way by Zionville to North Wilkesboro, choosing to go 66 miles to market rather than to travel on the Tennessee apology for a road 8 or 10 miles to Mountain City.
Ashe scenery is lovely in the extreme. It is a blue grass county, about 8,000 feet above sea level, on the average. . . . Now the road from Boone to Todd is to be made a state highway and will make the distance between Boone and Jefferson about 25 miles. . . .
At West Jefferson there is a café with the shortest name in the state. It is one word “Eat,” in letters three feet high. There is no love lost between West Jefferson, which is almost 10 years old, and old Jefferson, which dates from 1800. You have heard of how the ‘devil hates holy water.” Well, that expresses the regard these places have for each other. It is a mile and a half to the old town, which an irreverent man called “Old Jeff.”
Jefferson was in 1860 as big a place as Asheville . . . . It’s shade trees are mainly black heart cherries, and so profusely do these bear that a lady said, “We and the birds could not eat all of them.” “Tam” Bowie, well known in the general assembly, divides his allegiance between Jefferson and its youth rival, by having his office in the former and his home, a very charming one too, in West Jefferson.
North of Jefferson a few miles is the Ballou bed of iron ore, of very high quality. Its area is about 7 by 15 miles, and geologists say there are 2 million tons in it. Its grade is said to be equal to that of the famous Cranberry ore-bed. The new electric process makes new possibilities for this bed. . . .
A splendid highway is under construction from Jefferson to Sparta, but we took a detour and went by way of Laurel Springs, where Congressman “Bob” Doughton lives. Everybody knows him and loves him, too. In the mountain if folks “like” you, they “love” you. . . . On is broad acres were his 33 beef cattle, short-horn and Herefords, red brown and sleek. He has driven 1,000 cattle to Charlotte from Ashe. . . .
The route from Laurel Springs passes near the deserted copper mine at Ore Knob. The machinery is all gone. One can get the peculiar odor of the rusting ore in the air. The ore was roasted in the old days and the “Ingots of copper were hauled to Virginia in ox and mule teams. The shafts of the mine are several hundred feet deep. . . .
Sparta is getting to be really a pretty town. The court house of Alleghany is there, . . . . best school building in the three counties. . . .
All these counties raise no cow peas, as they will not mature. . . . no tobacco raised in any of these counties. . . .
Alleghany had 21,870 folks in 1900; now it has 28,334. It is outgrowing its two sisters.
The chief citizen of Alleghany is Hon. R.A. Doughton, whose home is at Sparta. All hands know him; he is “Rufe” to everybody and all want his advice in any matter, from a trade in steers to the biggest political question in the state. He owns many a broad acre of rich grass land, including a mountain, “Ton’s Knob,” and many a head of cattle.
From the front page of The North Wilkesboro Hustler, October 24, 1923
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