Mars Hill Secures Water Supply Adequate for Town and College, Nov. 8, 1926

Contract Closed for Huge Watershed on Laurel. . . Action of the Town Board Secures Water Supply Adequate for Town and College

The town officials of Mars Hill announce that surveys have been completed and the contract closed for the purchase of an adequate watershed which the town has had under consideration for some time. The shed which the town has purchased lies at the head of Laural Creek near Bald Mountain and about 10 miles from Mars Hill. According to the engineers who have had charge of the surveys, this water source is unsurpassed and the supply which is now available would be adequate to provide the town and college with an abundance of pure water for 50 years of growth. The shed has the further advantage of having adjoining lands which may be added if the necessity should arise.

Plans for construction have not been announced. The water will probably be brought over Bailey Mountain, however, where the reservoir is now located, thus utilizing much of the present water system.

Mars Hill, as many other towns of this section, has had its water supply put to a severe test during the drouths of the last two years. The problem has been more acute because of the relative size of the college and the increasing popularity of Mars hill as a Mecca for summer students and visitors. During the summer months, when water shortages are most likely to occur, Mars Hill has an unusually large population, having two summer school sessions, being the east of the Baptist Mountain Assembly and several conferences, besides serving a host for a large number of regular summer visitors.

Our town board is to be commended for their efficiency in handling this important civic problem and for their far-sightedness in purchasing at this time so excellent a water source. Though the temporary provisions which the town and college have made are adequate for the present, they cannot meet the demands of the inevitable expansion of the college and community. With this problem solved, one barrier to greater Mars Hill has been removed.

From the front page of The Hill Top, the student newspaper from Mars Hill College, Monday, Nov. 8, 1926

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