We started our Fish Dam Road journey today at Huckleberry Springs.  Mike Curry, the current owner, met us there and explained how the spring and surrounding land was purchased by the Riley family from a retired sheriff in this area by the name of Blackwell (or possibly Blacknall).  The two Riley brothers, Jefferson and Sam, eventually controlled the spring.  Mike told us how all the political wheeling and dealing in Durham was done at Huckleberry Spring.  He showed us an original group portrait taken at the spring that contained many important members of the power establishment.  John Sprunt Hill was present.  Sheriff Blackwell was there along with the Rileys and several more.  A bottle of whiskey sat prominently on a table.  Mike explained how John Lawrence inherited the spring from his uncles, the Rileys.  Mike bought the spring and some adjoining land from Mr. Lawrence with whom he worked for 18 years in Kenan Oil Company.  Mike showed the students the Spring House and explained how the water was collected in a large stainless steel vat at floor level.  We inspected the troughs for the water outside and all the piping.  Mike had an original five gallon glass jug from the spring that was held in an elaborate metal stand that could be tilted for a cup of the prized mineral water.  The students followed the runoff of the spring house to a place where a pond had once been.  The story is that two neighborhood boys had turned up missing.  It may have been Sam Riley, who lived on top of the hill overlooking the pond and spring, that got to thinking that the boys might have drowned in the pond.  He instructed that the dam be busted and the pond drained.  Two days later the boys showed back up, tired from their gallivanting around. 

We climbed the hill to the former Riley house, now owned by Dr. James and Mary Leggett (we met Mary and her dog).  Jim and Mary bought the house from Sam O. Riley in 1959 who built the house in 1941.  Fish Dam Road originally ran diagonally behind this house and across the hill top that overlooked Huckleberry Spring.  My guess is that Sam altered the course of the road so that it did not go through his back yard anymore and joined Cole Mill Road at a right angle instead of diagonally.  The original route of the road is marked with a line of old oak trees and lines up perfectly with Berini Drive on the other side of Cole Mill Road.

We piled back in our vehicles and traveled Carver Street (the route of Fish Dam) to Duke Homestead.  The students explored the outside structures here and toured the tobacco museum.  One group even found a fallen down spring house and running spring at the edge of the woods going towards Ellerbe Creek.

Again to the vehicles to travel the paved portion of Fish Dam from Crutchfield to Roxboro Street and then on to Old Oxford Highway.  We skirted the old city street remnants of Old Fish Dam Road that exist behind the Oxford Commons shopping center and near Billy Duke's Chapel.  We stopped at the Chapel and took some GPS readings of the course of Fish Dam Road marked again by a line of oaks.  Next stop the Catsburg Store for photos and to hear about Sheriff Cat Belvin who lived in the nearby mansion.  It was Hamlin Road all the way to Swing Road to where Fish Dam goes right through Red Mill Nursery and down into the woods heading to Ellerbe Creek.  We took a variety of roads to get to the other side of Ellerbe where we found the roadbed that descended across one functioning railroad track and one abandoned rail bed.  The roadbed got very wide as it approached the ford of Ellerbe Creek.  When we arrived at the ford, we found that a shallow body of water separated us from the main channel of the creek.  We made a bridge of piled up logs and crossed over.  Some students elected to cross farther upstream on top of a beaver dam.  We had a lot of muddy feat on the return trip.  Spring is just noticeably coming to Ellerbe Creek.  It was beautiful!

We had just enough time to get the students back to NCSSM for a late lunch.  Later this afternoon, we put up maps, aerial photos, and property plats outside the Art Studio.  Students also met to discuss what would be individual and group contributions to future exhibits on Fish Dam Road. 

Stay tuned for a student report on yesterday and today.

Until tomorrow,

Joe