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Bob Wright is a member of the Nat Greene Fly Fishers (Greensboro
based TU and FF Chapter) and wrote this article for them. I asked for
permission to use it because I like it!! Hope you do too!
Down There Have you ever given a second thought to what used to be, as you skim across a lake on your way to your favorite creek? As you know if you were ever in earshot, I was born and raised in the heart of the Smokey Mountains (Bryson City). As a young lad, my dad would often take me along to search for the wily trout in those gorgeous streams called; Hazel, Forney, Noland, and Eagle creek. There were only a handful of cars in my little hometown but no problem in getting to our destination. We would leave early, about 4:00 AM. We would pack our groceries (slab bacon, coffee, sugar, beans and lard) the lard was to fry the fish we were bound to catch. The walk to Noland Creek was only a short ten miles and Hazel was about eighteen. Just put one foot in front of the other you soon get there. Sometimes dad, a brakeman for the Southern RR, would give us a lift to Almond. Fishing then had no limits as to bait, size, or quantity. Catch and release (no way) we would fill a flour sack with nice rainbows and head home. Mom would call in the neighbors and we would have a fish fry. Now as we motor across Fontana Lake I wonder about the little towns; Bushnell, Wayside, Judson, Ecola, Forney and most of all Proctor. All of these over 100 feet below the surface. Proctor was a logging town with all the amenities, churches, schools, grocery stores, and ball fields. You name it, all nestled on Hazel Creek. Eagle and Forney Creeks had similar communities only now just memories. For me personally, I remember Fairfax, Sugar Fork, and Cable Cove. I can also remember my fishing gear. A Sears and Roebuck bamboo rod I got one Christmas, braided line, cat gut leaders (really), and wet flies (Grey Hackle and Yellow Hammer) no dry flies then. I could catch a hundred or so with no problem. Now every day fisherman and water skiers skim the surface and perhaps never give a thought to all those families uprooted because we needed a dam. Why was it built? Certainly not for fisherman or pleasure craft, We were at war and needed hydroelectric power to support new industry and homes. So the next time you are on your favorite lake, Fontana, James, Philpot or what ever think a little of what used to be way down there. For this ole country boy nostalgia sets in pretty strong and those lost towns are now just memories. By: Bob Wright
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