TPA UPDATE

Short newsletter this month

We're overwhelmed with deadlines right now, bear with us.  More about the deadlines in the next newsletter.

February First Sunday Hike, Superbowl Sunday on the Flat River, Durham County, NC, February 1st

Once again we'll celebrate Superbowl Sunday by walking around outside for a couple of hours.  At 2 PM on the 1st Sunday in February, February 1st, we'll gather at the "Gamelands" public parking lot off of Old Oxford Highway, just south of the bridge over the Flat River near Stagville.  The address of the lot is approximately 6482 Old Oxford Highway.  Two years ago we tried this hike and exhausted a passel of hikers.  We've since found an easier way to do it.  Scout's honor, this will not be a replay of the hike that nearly did us in a couple years ago. 

Crossing over the Flat River are the reason the Stagville Historical site is where it is, and those crossings served natives before newcomers.  There is a wonderful stone fish dam in the river upstream from the ancient European crossings.  There is a causeway made of piled logs covered with dirt that crosses the blackwater swamp between Stagville and the old bridges and ford sites.  Recent storms threw a look of debris up on to the river banks at the crossing site.  The crossings were at a sharp bend in the river and the west side of the river is protected from the force of floods by a carefully installed free stacked stone shield wall in the river bank.

We will walk a total of about 1.5 miles to view the roads that approach and gather at the 18th and 19th century crossing point over the Flat River.  A recent visit to this site revealed even more roads than had been mapped previously.  Visible yet are horse trails and a number of wagon roads.  The walking except around the old roads and the river bank will be on prepared surfaces, a jeep road.

From I-85 in Durham drive north on North Roxboro Street, Highway 501 for 1.37 miles and turn right on to Old Oxford Highway.  Follow it north about 10 miles, through Catsburg, past Treyburn, and past Stagville Historical Site.  Turn right into the Gamelands parking lot.  Get there early to register and chat.

The center photo to the left shows a ford weir at the old crossing site. That is to say, there was a low dam installed fairly late in the crossing's life that created a level surface (behind the dam) and a more or less constant water flow in low water.  The other two photos show the free stacked flood wall mentioned above.  It is all quite dramatic and if the water is low enough on the day of the hike we should be able get clear views of these artifacts.

January First Sunday Hike, on the Little River, in Durham County, NC January 4th

This hike turned out to be one of the best of the season.  It was cool but not too cold, and there was lots and lots to see.  About twenty-four intrepid souls showed up, and we all enjoyed the day, the company, and the scenery.

In the photo to the left, Gene Dodd is assisting folks over the first ford.  The second ford of the day went as well.   Unfortunately, conditions were such at the second ford that we couldn't cross where the old road used to cross the stream.  For those interested, the old road used to pass Little River School's north side, and the ford approach can still be seen as a deep cut in the hillside just beside the current location of a dumpster cage.  It would've been a great way to end the hike.  Maybe next time.  Even without that old roadbed, there was plenty to see.  Some of it as colorful as Pip Merrick's ski hat.

We visited a 19th century farmstead which, properly tested, will probably prove to be considerably older.  The old farm sits atop the valley wall on the north side of the Little River in Durham County, NC.  It once sat astride a main north-south highway, the route that became Highway 501.  It appears that the occupation predated bridging of the Little and probably persisted until the middle decades of the 20th century.  Rather like those clumsiest of professionals, archaeologists, we "stumbled" over the cemetery associated with the farm as we were starting our trek out.  If you look closely at the ground by the groups feet in the second photo you'll see stones marking the perimeter of a plot.  There were two such side by side.

It wasn't until a week or so after the hike, when pictures taken at the hike showed up that another mystery was solved.  There was at the head of the road leading from the river to the farmstead a quite distinctive, free stacked stone foundation, and the purpose of the building was never all that clear until the picture, shown to the right here, revealed a flue-hole.  This seems to indicate that the structure was originally a tobacco curing shed.  There is no sign of brickwork around the foundation, so how the farmer contained the fire remains unexplained.  The most unusual aspect of the flue is the use of a stone header framing the top of the flue. 

The TPA is indebted to Jane Korest, Durham County's open space manager for arranging parking at the old school site and for giving us permission to trek around this wonderful site.

Upcoming Public Events

• January 19th, at 7PM Tom will speak to the Davidson County Genealogical Society in Lexington about the old roads in that part of the state.
• It appears that we'll have our March FSH in Randolph County, on Deep River, around David Fanning's Revolutionary War hangout.