The Return of Lake Toxaway: Clearing the Lakebed and Rebuilding the Dam
Once the details of the land purchase were settled in mid- to late-1960, the redevelopment of Lake Toxaway began to move quickly. To get a sense of the circumstances that the Lake Toxaway Estates company faced, Donny and Susan Boyd set the scene in the video interview below.
One of the first orders of business was to draw up the lot divisions around the new lake, as interest from buyers was already piqued. The company also needed to be sensitive to existing property owner concerns, because there were still several occupied homes and owned lots along the dry lakebed, including Hillmont (what is now the Greystone Inn), then still owned by Lucy Armstrong Moltz.
By early fall, workers began clearing timber and pulpwood out of the lakebed near the dam. Deals had already been struck with the Gloucester Lumber Company of Rosman and Champion Paper and Fiber of Canton to purchase these materials.[1]
Additionally, the contract to rebuild the dam was awarded to A.P. White and Associates of Charlotte, with the principals announcing that the work would be completed by Christmas (an overconfident prediction, as it turned out). [2]
Seventy-year-old John Sanders of Lake Toxaway watches modern earth-moving machinery working on the new dam. Photo courtesy of June Humphrey collection, first published in Treasures of Toxaway, Jan Plemmons.
In January 1961, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported:
“A half-million dollars’ worth of heavy equipment of A.P. White and Associates…is slicing off the top of a mountain and moving specially selected clay material to form the dam’s base 350 feet thick. Giant drag pans loaded with tons of earth rumble down the mountainside to spread their loads, then roar again to the top while crawler tractors with sheep foot rollers pack the clay solid.
Old residents of the area who remember the mule-pan method of moving dirt and rubble to the original dam find the contrast striking.
The lakebed, thickly grown up during the last half-century, is now more than half-cleared again of pulpwood and sawn timber. A local fire warden is supervising the burning of huge piles of brush that remain.”
(That description is oddly reminiscent of photographer R.H. Scadin’s diary account of the original lakebed clearing, here).
An 1800s-era mule drag-pan used for construction purposes. Clearly, this wouldn’t hold much dirt so it would take the effort of many mules or horses to haul on a large project.
One of the more interesting discoveries during the construction occurred in March 1961, when workers found a pre-flood relic on the lakebed.
Handwritten caption: Rex Humphrey, old boat found when clearing the lake bed (was later burned).
Lake Watauga Democrat, March 30, 1961
Donny Boyd relays an amusing anecdote about working on the construction site with Rex Humphrey, pictured in the photo above.
