Mainspring Conservation Trust

Stewards of the Southern Blue Ridge

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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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Filed Under: News, Press Room Tagged With: Cherokee County, conservation, Cultural Heritage, farmland, land conservation

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.” 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: connect, conservation, Cultural Heritage, education, land conservation, Macon County

Smoky Mountain News: Below the Pinnacle: Project seeks to protect 250 acres below Pinnacle Rock

January 21, 2021

By Holly Kays, January 20, 2021

The 3.5-mile hike to the top of Pinnacle Rock is a heart-pumping one, the old logging roads that now serve as hiking trails climbing 2,200 feet before leaving the hiker breathless before a sweeping aerial view of the Town of Sylva, cradled on all sides by forested mountain slopes.

The view is the flagship offering of Pinnacle Park, whose core area of 1,088 acres once served as Sylva’s watershed and now offers a worthy hiking challenge within minutes of town. But few people are aware that only half of the rocky outcropping known as Pinnacle Rock is actually part of town property, or that the pristine acreage below that rock is private land that could be developed at any moment. 

Scramble for protection

Now, thanks to Mainspring Conservation Trust, it won’t be. 

Read entire article.

Filed Under: News, Press Room Tagged With: Jackson County, land conservation

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