land conservation

Family Hopes to Conserve Their Popular Swain County Farm

March 14, 2022

When Afton Roberts was ten years old, her father, Jeff Darnell, caught her writing a check to Mainspring Conservation Trust (then the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee). “I just love land trusts, Daddy,” was what she told him.

Twenty years later, Afton, along with her brother, Nate, is leading the conservation effort to protect her family’s 68-acre working farm.

The Darnells began leasing the Swain County property along the Tuckasegee River bottomlands in 1982. At the time, the farm had grown wild, and many locals told Jeff he would never grow a good crop on the rough land. But an Israelian classmate of his at the University of Tennessee had introduced Jeff to drip irrigation, a technique designed to slowly place water directly into the root zone through a network of tubes, minimizing evaporation and saving water.

Today, the property Darnell Farms uses to grow a variety of foods is one of the most productive fields in western North Carolina. Jeff’s children, Nate Darnell and Afton Roberts, have expanded the business to include agritourism, bringing visitors to the farm for pick-your-own events, music entertainment, and food truck offerings.

“Our family is passionate about Appalachian agriculture and are continually implementing forward-thinking steps to highlight the importance of farming in this region,” says Roberts. “You cannot save farming without farmland. My brother, Nate, and I want our children, our future grandchildren, and every other child to have a place they can come to and still see the same preservation, even one hundred years from now.”

And the conservation couldn’t happen at a better time. Compared to agricultural statistics from 1930, Swain County had almost 78,000 acres of land in farms; by 2017, that number had dropped to 10,131 acres. “Across the nation, farmland is disappearing at a rapid pace, increasing dependency on global supply chains and threatening local food security,” says Mainspring Executive Director Jordan Smith. “We are thrilled the Darnells understand this threat and wanted to act, protecting this vital agricultural landscape.”

The farm also sits adjacent to Kituwah Mound, considered by all three of the federally recognized Cherokee tribes as the place of origin for the Cherokee people. In 1996, the Cherokee purchased the 307 acres next to Darnell Farm and was acquired into trust in 2021 by the Sneed administration. Smith says the Darnell Farm was also once part of the Cherokee Mother Town, which makes it even more special to conserve. “Cherokee farmers once again farm the land around Kituwah Mound,” he explains. “Conserving the Darnell Farm ensures another significant portion of Kituwah will continue to provide food for generations to come, just as it has for thousands of years.”

The conservation effort is partially funded through a grant from the North Carolina Agricultural Development & Farmland Preservation Trust Fund and a major donation from Brad Stanback and Shelli Lodge-Stanback. Sara Posey-Davis, land conservation manager for Mainspring, says the land trust is still raising funds for a portion of the project. “We currently have funds to pay for 75% of the easement value,” she says. “We’ve got to raise another $30,000 for transaction costs but hope to raise enough money to be able to pay the Darnells for the full value of the easement.” Posey-Davis adds that this project is worth caring about. “The prime farmland, proximity to water, and the deep history of cultural heritage make this such a special project,” she says. “Conserving it reaches every aspect of Mainspring’s mission to save ‘the best of the rest.’”

To support the conservation efforts of this farm, visit www.mainspringconserves.org to donate.

Prominent Cherokee County Farm Conserved

March 2, 2022

Brothers Ed and Keith Wood have conserved more than 250 acres of their Cherokee County family farm, passing the halfway point to conserving 400 acres of working farmland in the Valley River valley.

The Wood family has been farming the land that sits along the Nantahala Scenic Byway since the early 1900s. “The land has been a farm as long as I have been around,” says Ed. “Keith and I have made a living from it pretty much all our adult lives, and our father and grandfather before that.”

The conservation project was made possible through funding from the North Carolina Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, which offers compensation to farmers who choose to not develop their land. Mainspring Conservation Trust facilitated the process, which took an unusually long time. “Typically, these projects only take one to two years to complete,” Sara Posey-Davis, land conservation manager at Mainspring, says. “But Ed and Keith had a complex legal history on their farm with the highway, an unused rail line and the airport all adjacent to their land. We definitely had some ups and downs through the process, but I’m so grateful they stuck with us to preserve their farm.”

Visible from Nantahala National Forest lands in the Snowbird and Valley River Mountains, the property includes more than two miles of named and unnamed streams that are part of the Valley River Watershed. Additionally, more than 81% of the soil is considered Prime Farmland soil. “The farm is highly productive compared to other farms in the state — or even the country for that matter,” Keith Wood says. “It just makes sense for this farm to remain in food production for future generations. It’s hard to eat a building or asphalt.”

Mainspring expects to conserve the other 150 acres later this year. “As development pressures rise and demands on farmers grow, the need to protect working farmlands intensifies,” says Posey-Davis. “This century-old farm in the mountains will continue to produce outstanding crops for generations to come, and that’s something to be proud of.”

For more information about the North Carolina Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund grants to preserve farmland, contact Posey-Davis at Mainspring Conservation Trust via their website: www.mainspringconserves.org.

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Archeological Students Dig Into Mainspring’s Conserved Property

November 5, 2021

This past summer, 16 students from Western Carolina University, led by Dr. Brett Riggs, Dr. Jane Eastman and field assistant Karen Biggert, drove each weekday from Cullowhee to Franklin to spend their days outside for more than four hot, sticky weeks. Their mission? Apply scientific techniques to discover archaeological evidence on Mainspring’s Watauga Mound property, and learn more about what northern Macon County looked like hundreds of years ago.

Partnering with the Tribal Historic Preservation Office at the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and using remote sensing technology and imaging software, the upper-level Archeological Field Study students scanned the ground at half-meter intervals throughout the 70-acre field to discover, by direct observation and measurement, how the Cherokee people lived and thrived in this region.

“We knew from 18th century documents that Watauga was a very important town, but there was some question about whether the small hillocks in the field represented the mound that Bartam saw there in 1776,” archeologist Brett Riggs explains. Riggs serves as the Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University. “With new technology, we can learn a whole lot about village structure and site plan without digging, including where the mound actually is. Without that that geophysical equipment, it would have taken years of excavation to find out what we’ve found in four and a half weeks.”

*Dr. Brett Riggs, Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University*

Because soil contains iron, activities like burning a fire or digging a hole can realign the local magnetic fields in the ground, producing magnetic anomalies that contrast with those of the surrounding unmodified soils. Archeologists use a geophysical technique called gradiometery to map subsoil magnetism and detect those local anomalies. Although gradiometers only “see” about a meter deep, most magnetic anomalies that represent human activities are within that uppermost layer, allowing researchers to get a big-picture understanding of the site they are studying.

*WCU students used a gradeometer that maps magnetic fields in the ground and detect local anomalies that represent past human activities such as burning a fire, or digging a hole.*

“We found projectile points where there was human occupation 7,000 years ago, with continuous occupation starting as early as 1,000 years ago,” Riggs explains. “We can also see when the community starts to spread out, especially accelerating after the Revolutionary War.”

Using the gradiometer, students found domestic houses — octagons 23 feet across with four long sides and four short sides — and pits dug into the ground to store food, particularly sweet potatoes, a popular crop in the 18th century. Those pits are especially important for archeologists. “Once any of the potatoes rotted, the pits couldn’t be used for food storage again, so they were used for trash,” Riggs continues. “We love those pits because there we can find all kinds of evidence that tells the stories of the people who lived here. Archeologists are just dumpster divers at heart.”

*A WCU student works on the archeological site.*

But the biggest discovery came from testing not one, but two small hills — bumps really — that are subtle landforms located in the pasture. Although both had been plowed significantly over time, the two hills had piqued the curiosity of several researchers over the years.

“We studied one hillock first, because the farmer was cutting hay on the field with the other hill,” Riggs explains. “There, the gradiometry revealed remains of at least three superimposed council houses — clearly evidence of Watauga Mound.”

Those council houses were about 48 feet wide and 24 feet tall and lasted about 20-50 years. The entrance to a council house faced south-southeast to perfectly align with the sunrise of the winter solstice. Once a council house needed to be rebuilt, the previous one would be burned and the new structure built on top. Riggs estimates about five to eight such houses were on Watauga Mound through time. “The council house was used for astronomical observations,” Riggs says. “This area would be perfect for that use because of the open fields on an elevated plateau — the Watauga Plains. The sun comes up and shines straight through the door.”

*Some of the artifacts found at the Watauga site.*

Once the farmer finished cutting hay, the WCU team explored the second rise in the pasture, and what they found astounded the experts. “We scanned the second mound and found another council house and pavilion, facing away from Watauga Town,” Riggs explains. “No one has documented paired mounds, with paired council house structures in the southern Blue Ridge before.”

This mound is offset from the larger one, but closer to water. Riggs said the house on it could have been used for anything communal. “It could have been a church, courthouse, dance house, or even a lodge reserved for groups of men, patterns observed in other areas of the Southeast,” he explains. “In any case, this is unprecedented in this area.”

The council houses and surrounding town likely stood until 1776, when Griffith Rutherford, brigadier general of the Salisbury District militia, led 1,700 troops in an expedition against the Cherokee. After stoking significant fear in white North Carolinians over a potential Cherokee alliance with the British during the Revolutionary War, Rutherford and his troops marched through the Cherokee Middle Towns — including Cowee, Watauga and Nikwasi — and burned crops, houses and livestock, eventually destroying 36 villages and leaving the Cherokee people to survive through winter on wild game and nuts, with no protection from the elements. Though the Cherokee eventually rebuilt, they spread their villages over a significantly larger area, hoping to avoid another total loss of resources if attacked again. (learn more about the Rutherford Expedition here)

Riggs says he is excited to bring other classes back to the historic town for additional research. “So often, when archeologists are brought in for projects, it’s because some type of development is being planned for the site, so we’re on a tight timeframe to complete our work,” he says. “Having a place — especially one as special as Watauga — that is conserved forever means we can spend the next 30 years being diligent about the study and not be rushed to finish. It is such a gift for us, so I’m so thankful that the landowners were willing to sell to Mainspring and this important cultural site will be protected forever.”