Gibson Bottoms

Macon County

Acreage: 64 (two transactions)

Year: 2002

Gibson Bottoms was fated to be an RV park before hundreds of Macon County citizens asked the state to halt the first permit for point source pollution on the river downstream of Franklin. Subsequently, Mainspring negotiated a contract to purchase the 36-acre tract from the developer. The financial support for this purchase came from the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund, a grant from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, made via the Conservation Fund, and private gifts from 85 friends of Mainspring who responded to an appeal letter in 2002. An adjacent 28.5 acres was conserved in 2005, which includes another 1,000 feet of river frontage. In 2017, Franklin High School senior Logan Mossbarger and volunteer John Garrison designed a layout and construction of a 1.7 mile trail on the property.

View the new trail or download the PDF to print on your own.