Roadbeds and Ruins

Roadbeds and Ruins. . With a keen eye you can see generations scratched into the hillsides. Tree trunks growing over rusted pasture fencing, spring daffodils nodding beside homesite ruins, and moss-covered headstones give proof of bygone communities., Lake James' forests are crisscrossed with old roadbeds, most long-abandoned. Some are logging roads built to drag timber, while others are corridors where Fonta Flora families carried out their day-to-day activities., One of the oldest roads in Burke County emerges from the waters below you and continues west to Rock Hill. The Johns River Road, sometimes called the Wilkesboro Road, was the route families travelled from Hayden Ridge to Rock Hill Church. It's how the Gibbs made their way from here to watch a game at the baseball diamond by the Linville River. Roads like this linked settlements all along the foothills. Look carefully and you can trace the passage of oxcarts plodding through the years.