Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

I. K. Stearns fishing on Noland Creek

  • wcu_picturing-5490.jpg
  • This 1941 image of Irving Kip Stearns (1895-1942) with fishing gear on the third bridge from the trailhead up Noland Creek and about 500 feet from where his cabin was prior to the formation of the great Smoky Mountains National Park, is part of the Stearns-Grueninger collection. I. K. Stearns was president of Carolina Wood Turning Company from 1928 until his death in 1942. Stearns’ grandfather, Jeremiah Shank, started the company in 1903 as Bryson City Pump Works and it grew to be a thriving industry for the community. In 1911, Stearns was in the first graduating class of Bryson City High School. He had one son, Joseph Pease Stearns (1917-1948). In 1935, I. K. married Betty Grueninger (1896-1971).