George Ensley - Jan 16, 2008

An update on the situationin Swain County NC as to the completion of the replacement road ,now called the Road to Nowhere. With the election of a new congressman in last falls election, the people of the country who worked for so long have apparently lost out in their efforts to see the road completed. The Final Environmental Impact Statement,did show the road would benefit the area far greater than any cash settlement, but the Parks recomendation was for the "no build" altrenative to settle the 1943 Agreement between, Swain County, North carolina, TVA, and the US. The cash settlement of $52 million was worked out by Ted Snyder, former Sierra Club leader who vowed years ago to take Swain County, foot by foot into Wilderness designation. Once the 43 Agreement is broken by cash or any other no build alternative, there is great danger of the Wilderness Act to expanding from the present Park boundries with buffer zones which will bring many restrictions on the use of private property. So with the apparent near breaking of the Agreement, we are gearing up to try to prevent the Wilderness Act from taking the remining 12 % of Swain out of private property. The reason I post this here is because there are at least 3 cemeterys in that area of the GSMNP that contain Halls that descend from Squire Jonn through his son Joshua Hall, Sr. There is very real danger that there will be stronger restrictions to visitations to these cemeterys over Fontana Lake, since the surface of the Lake can be closed to motorized boats due to the Widerness Act and its potential to cut off any signs of human life ever in the Great Smokys on the NC side.

http://www.buildnorthshoreroad.com/