News

Under Cover – A Mainspring Project

January 7, 2026

Tucked just a mile outside the heart of Andrews, North Carolina, a 30-foot veil of water tumbles down a mossy cliff into the trout-rich waters of Britton Creek. Cover Falls isn’t marked on roadside signs or mapped in glossy guidebooks, but it’s a place locals know about — and it’s worth venturing off the beaten path to find.

Here, where the spray of the falls keeps the rocks damp year-round, rare wildflowers flourish. Wildlife moves freely between this property and the 30,000 acres of adjoining U.S. Forest Service land in the Snowbird Mountains. Beneath the surface, the cold, clean waters of Britton Creek shelter native brook trout and the endemic Valley River Crayfish, a species found nowhere else in the world.

But the natural beauty of Cover Falls is only part of its story. The creek and the falls are named for Lillian Brittain Cover, an Andrews native and political pioneer who, just four years after women gained the right to vote, became a delegate to the 1924 Democratic Convention. She later broke barriers as the first woman to serve on North Carolina’s State Stream Commission, championing clean water and conservation decades before it was commonplace. The property also borders more than 2,200 feet of Tatham Gap Road, a segment of the Trail of Tears.

Despite its many cultural and ecological values, this remarkable place recently came close to being lost. The previous owner had purchased the tract with plans for residential development, and with its proximity to downtown Andrews and other residences nearby, the threat of construction loomed large. Negotiations to protect the land came down to the wire, then intensified when another buyer made a higher offer. Although the owner preferred to conserve the land, they made it clear that if Mainspring’s deal fell through, the property would be developed.

Happily, however, through support from some generous anonymous donors and other partners, the land is now permanently protected from private development under Mainspring’s ownership, to eventually be protected in perpetuity by a North Carolina Land and Water Fund conservation easement.

The Cover Falls property will ultimately become Mainspring’s newest public preserve, complete with safe, well-marked trails, educational signage and an access area that honors both the area’s ecology and history. Visitors will soon be able to follow a loop trail dedicated to Lillian Brittain Cover, learn her story and experience the same natural wonders she once knew and fought to protect.

“This project reflects one of Mainspring’s core commitments — conserving special places in ways that connect people to the land,” says Graham Garrett, Mainspring land conservation associate. “While there is sometimes a perception that land trusts ‘lock away’ land, Cover Falls is a great example of how conservation can create lasting public benefits. When my boys and I play at the base of the falls and feel the spray on our faces, I take pleasure in knowing that one day they may do the very same thing with their children.”

Ode to Long Man: When Ela Dam is gone, its history will remain

November 24, 2025

*This Tennessee Valley Authority photograph shows the dam and powerhouse in 1939, while leased to the Smoky Mountain Power Company.*

For centuries, the Oconaluftee River has carried more than water through the valleys of Swain County. It has carried stories — stories of Cherokee towns, families who fished its bends and visitors who once filled its roadside motels. Now, as the Ela Dam nears the end of its life, archaeologists Paul Webb and Kaley Kelly are helping ensure those stories are not lost.

Webb and Kelly recently developed a public “storyboard” on the history of Ela and its river. The report, which has been submitted to the North Carolina Historic Preservation Office, is technically about the dam, but Webb views it differently. “Although the project is about the dam, it’s really about the river,” he says. “The dam is just a small blip in the history of the Oconaluftee. The water was here long before, and it will be here long after.”

*Helen Bradley of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians fishing along the Oconaluftee River.* *Courtesy of Museum of the Cherokee People*.

The Oconaluftee begins high in the Smokies before joining the Tuckasegee less than a mile south of the dam. Long before concrete and turbines popped up, it was free-flowing water that sustained fish, mussels, eels and people alike. The river provided food, passage and connection. Cherokee accounts describe the Oconaluftee as “Long Man,” a living being with a head in the mountains and feet in the sea. Another folk story, recorded in the late 1800s, spoke of “water bears” that lived in a deep pool within today’s Lake Ela.

In the early 1900s, the Appalachian Railroad established a stop called “Ela,” a name some trace to the Cherokee word Elawodi, meaning “yellow hill.” A small, close-knit community soon formed along the tracks, with a church, bridges and later motels to serve tourists. At one point, entrepreneurs attempted to sell “lakefront lots” for vacation homes, but the idea never gained traction and Ela remained a very rural area.

For the people who lived there, the river was central. Kids swam and fished in its natural pools and families picnicked on its banks. Webb says he and Kelly heard from longtime residents who remember fishing holes so productive they became family traditions. Webb recalls a Cherokee elder mentioning she had made it her mission to teach her grandchildren how to fish in those same waters, keeping those traditions alive.

The dam, completed in 1925, provided electricity to the area but little identity. “I’m surprised in Swain County that I haven’t heard anyone say they shouldn’t take it down,” Webb says. “No one seems emotionally tied to the dam. Most people are tied to the river.”

As the dam fades into history, Webb and Kelly hope the storyboard will serve as a reminder that the river’s true power lies in the lives it touches. “Everybody is tied to the river one way or another,” he says. “The dam is just one chapter. The river is the whole story.”

See the full storyboard at arcg.is/1CuWHL3.

Conservation Partners Collaborate to Save Remaining Inholding in Panthertown Valley

October 8, 2025

Thanks to a collaboration among local conservation partners, Mainspring Conservation Trust has acquired a critical 94-acre inholding within Panthertown Valley, and is now on track to be permanently protected.

One of western North Carolina’s most cherished natural areas, Panthertown is often called the “Yosemite of the East.” The 6,300 acres stretch along the Eastern Continental Divide, offering more than 25 miles of trails that wind through granite domes, mountain bogs, trout streams, and waterfalls.

When the U.S. Forest Service acquired Panthertown Valley and the surrounding Roy Taylor Memorial Forest in the 1980s, one parcel—now known as the Slickens Creek tract—remained privately owned. Surrounded entirely by national forest, the property includes more than 2,800 feet of wild trout waters and provides critical early successional habitat for species such as Golden-winged Warblers and Ruffed Grouse. The tract also lies within the Blue Ridge Parkway viewshed and links two popular trails: the Rattlesnake Knob and Turkey Knob trails.

Conserving this inholding has been a shared goal of Mainspring, Friends of Panthertown, Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust, and the U.S. Forest Service for decades. The opportunity finally arrived when the longtime owners’ heirs prepared to sell. Thanks to support from a private donor and Atira Conservation, Mainspring was able to move quickly to secure the land before it could be lost to private development.

“Protecting the Slickens Creek property is about more than conserving acreage—it’s about completing the vision for Panthertown Valley,” said Sophie Vaszquez, Land Conservation Associate at Mainspring Conservation Trust. “This project connects trails, protects rare habitats, and ensures that this wild landscape will remain unspoiled for generations to come.”

Generous donors to the partnering organizations, including the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, have helped us raise $100,000 of the $150,000 needed to remove unsafe structures, create a new trail connection to the Panthertown network, and support the long-term stewardship of the site’s sensitive habitats. If you’d like to help with the remaining $50,000 needed, visit here and apply your donation to “Panthertown Land Purchase” in the drop-down menu.

The Slickens Creek acquisition builds on other conservation projects with the land trust and Panthertown. In 2017, Mainspring purchased a 15.9-acre tract at the Salt Rock Gap trailhead—transforming a pinch point into a welcoming public entrance before transferring it to the Forest Service.

As the final unconserved piece of this significant landscape, this latest Mainspring project links ecological protection with recreation and beauty. It’s the culmination of decades of persistence and partnership, and a great example that when preparation meets opportunity, this region wins.

Click here to support this conservation project.