I guess I just wanted to stand near his grave and say thanks.īy now it’s getting close to lunchtime so we decide to get a bite to eat before heading to “nowhere”. The Ken Burns film, America’s Best Idea, had a segment on the Smokies and it explained the critical role played by Kephart in the creation of the park. Upon arrival in Bryson City the first thing we had to do was visit the Bryson City Cemetery and find the grave of Horace Kephart. So yesterday, we packed up the car and headed off to see this mysterious road. The road will never be completed and was finally resolved in 2010 when Swain County accepted a $52 million settlement from the park service. Environmental issues with erosion and acid runoff from the exposed rocks and funding concerns led to years of delay and litigation. But, by 1970 only 7 miles of the promised road had been completed. The solution was an agreement to build a new 30 mile road within the park. With the Fontana lake on one side and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the other, there would be no access for the displaced people to return to family cemeteries located on the north side of the lake. One problem was that the reservoir would require nearly 12,000 acres, displace 1,300 families and engulf the only road between Bryson City and Deals Gap. The Alcoa Aluminum production facility in Alcoa, TN needed electricity so the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was given funding by congress in 1941 to build Fontana Dam.Īs a 1943 TVA promotional poster proclaimed:īy 1970 only 7 miles of the promised road had been completed. The US was in the middle of World War II. It’s located near Bryson City, NC and was born out of an agreement in 1943 between the National Park Service and the people of Swain County North Carolina. Well, there really is a “Road to Nowhere”. Sort of halfway between “are you serious?” and “on no, not another hair-brained idea”. Let’s take a ride on the road to nowhere!” Those words had hardly cleared my lips when my wife gives me “the look”.
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