April First Sunday Hike

Foul weather interfered with last month's First Sunday Hike, so for our April First Sunday Hike we will study the area of Cox's Mill, a Revolutionary War site in Randolph County, on Sunday April 5th.  During the Revolutionary War Colonel David Fanning is said to have had his Tory militia headquarters in this area.  Our meeting will be at Bill Johnson's farm at 2580 Highway 22 South, south of Ramseur on the east side of Deep River.  As usual we will depart the trailhead at 2 PM and be back to the cars by 4 PM.  Mr. Johnson's fields were covered by both armies several times during the course of the Revolution.  Both sides camped forces here probably because there was good water and two or three grist mills within easy reach.  We'll visit one of these mill sites, a point that has hosted a succession of bridges over the Deep.  The route planned is not long and not particularly rough but it is not easy.  There are some steep slopes and the trail is utterly unimproved.  This should be a most rewarding hike as the mill seat is highly evolved as are the stream crossings.  Lots to see. 

The map to the left shows the meeting site relative to Ramseur.  Click on the map for an enlargement.

We will prepare handouts with a brief history of the area and some notes on dates and events on the land and at the river crossings here and nearby.

  Earth Fare hosted and Duck-Rabbit brewery supplied the beer for a beer tasting two weeks ago.  The place was packed.  A good time was had by all.  The tasting ended a month long fundraising effort on the parts of Earth Fare that raised about a thousand dollars for the TPA.  So patronize these folks, drink Duck-Rabbit beer, the beer of a generous company but, more importantly, a very good set of well designed beers, and shop at Earth Fare where you can rely on truth in advertising.

A special thanks to all the Earth Fare and Duck-Rabbit staff who made the event work.

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TPA Vehicle has a New Look

Good friend of the TPA, Bill Burlingame paid to have our vehicle decorated with our logo and contact information.  Katherine Weaver designed the logo and letterhead a few years ago and it has turned out to be a very good representation of what we stand for.


Bill also bought us a skid plate to protect the undercarriage and crankcase when we do with the 4WD what is intended for 4WD, and we've already put it to good use.  Up until now we simply couldn't risk taking the vehicle someplace where it might scrape a rock or thump a stump. 

Thanks Bill.  Thanks Katherine. 

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Historic Road Congress

On March 7th there was a Congress of Historic Road Hunters in Charlotte, NC.  Representatives from various state and federal agencies, parks, non-profits, and road hunters from way back gathered in Charlotte attempting to define what they do and how they ought to do it.  Most had never met one another before and were delighted to find there were others actually interested in finding these old vestiges of our common past.  The object of the meeting was determine if we could all agree on sharing our findings and, if we could, how best to do that .  We settled on an internet interface suggested by Dale Loberger, a GIS expert.  For having such a good idea, we stuck Dale with designing an optimal data structure.  The final product will have a user interface that will allow the public to come to a web page, enter their contact information and then enter the location of a road segment or some related data.  This information will then be digested and displayed on an electronic map.  The south is full of England's earliest roads and most are as yet unmapped and unnoted.  By means of the processes kicked off at Charlotte, we hope to correct that problem.  We will meet again in May to review Dale's work and finalize the design of data and input methods.  We've already determined to make the process and structure as scalable as possible so that we can eventually accept data from all over the country.  This meeting was organized by Charles Baxley of Lugoff, SC and hosted by Bill Anderson at Historic Rosedale Plantation near Charlotte

Anybody know a terabyte host who might provide us a home?

If you are a road hunter or have an interest in this project, please, let us know and we'll make sure you're on the mailing list for the next gathering.  Just send a  note to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it and put Road Database in the subject line.

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Heritage Bike Tour Suspended

TPA's first ever bike tour required, it seems, more time than we could put on it right now.  We've already done the design work and written out a prey good tour booklet so we'll reschedule it for later in this Spring, but we just can't handle it right now.  We need volunteers to assist at the departure, at the three water break stations along the way, and to check riders in at the end of the day.  As soon as we have the event staffed, we'll set a date.  Volunteers may sign up by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .  Mention "bike ride" in the subject line.

Suggest A Hike

If you have an idea about a place to hike or an interesting spot you'd like us to visit, let us know.  We are more or less on hiatus in July and August, and we may resume First Sunday Hikes in September.  Meanwhile if you have a place we can hike without bugs and other varmints bothering us, please  let us know about it.

 
trm