Blount and Beyond Online Magazine - Magazine - Page 116
The Underwater Ghost Town of Proctor in the Appalachia Mountains
The mountains, hollers, hills, and valleys of Appalachia are rich with history and legends and sometimes the
towns and villages can be found in the most unlikely places, like underwater. Tennessee is blessed with
many man-made lakes but there is more to these lakes than meets the eye. When the lakes were made many
communities, farms and even small towns are now underwater. With these towns lying at the bottom of
many of the lakes and the eerie feeling one gets from these submerged ghost towns is what legends are made
of..
The Town of Proctor, North Carolina is now one of the ghost towns underwater. It is deep below the waters
of Fontana Lake. The town was named after Moses Proctor, the first European settler in the area. The town
was flooded after the construction of the dam. According to many hikers the remaining parts of the town of
Proctor are inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and can be accessed via backcountry trails in
the park.
The land needed for the new dam and lake was seized by the government. Residents of Proctor had to
relocate and that meant they had to leave important places behind. This included family cemeteries. Once the
land was flooded these cemeteries could only be accessed by ferry. The people were promised that a 30-mile
road would be constructed along the north rim of the lake so that families could have easier access to their
family cemeteries. This was a grand gesture, but this promise was never fulfilled. A road, just six miles of the
promised road, was completed, and it goes nowhere. If you look at a road map the road9s name is Lakeview
Drive, but locally, it9s known as The Road To Nowhere, the road represents a broken promise.
For a more detailed history of The Road to Nowhere, go to thesmokies.com.
Appalachian Sayings
The remote Appalachia mountains are filled with a rich history of sayings, signs and phrases. We will
look at a few of those sayings.
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A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
A little birdie told me.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Ain’t got a pot to pee in, or a window to throw it out.
Ain’t no hill for a climber.
Ain’t never could do nuthin.
All is well that ends well.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Appalachian Ways
Music was and still is a way of life in the Appalachia Mountains. It combines the hymns, ballads, and
fiddles, the soulful pre-blues music of African Americans, and the yodeling of Germany and Scandinavia
and creates a style of music still unique to this region. Appalachian music also includes the mountain
dulcimer, the mandolin and the banjo.