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Oral Histories of Western North Carolina Back to search results
WCU - Oral Histories of Western North Carolina

Interview with Claude M. Douthit

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Item 1 - Interview with Claude M. Douthit

Interview with Claude M. Douthit

HL_HIST474_Atzenhoffer_Douthit_2009-11-18

Interview with Claude M. Douthit

HL_HIST474_Atzenhoffer_Douthit_2009-11-18_transcript
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  • Claude Douthit discusses a few of the logging companies operating in the area where the Fontana Dam was built. According to Douhit, the lumber companies were the main source of employment for people in Swain County prior to the building of the Fontana Dam. The Fontana Dam, completed in 1945, is built on the Little Tennessee River and is located near Fontana Village in Graham County, North Carolina.
  • INTERVIEW Wim CLAUDE DOUmiT D[Claude Douthit]-You've got to go back, you had actually 4 major logging industries down there, you had Kitchen's Lumber Company on Twenty-mine; Montvale Lumber Company on Eagle Creek, Ritter Lumber Co on Hazel Creek, Noland Lumber Company on Forney Creek and the rest of Swain County, 339,000 acres was practically all of it, practically every bit of it that created the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was done with logging company interests, like Ravenfork Lumber Company up here at Smokmont, 32000 acres all the way up there, the whole area was based on logging, the whole thing, even Swain County and Bryson City, you think even on Deep Creek, all the way to Mt. Lacont, who do you think owned it? Champion Fiber Company, 93,500 acres of it, so. Everything was based on logging. When the dam was built then, it gave a few people jobs again. That's the only way it could happen, down to the 1,463 people that was left there at the time in that area. R[Rhydon Atzenhoffer]-Do you think the people in Swain County and those areas were happy that the dam was going to be built? D-Sure, anything that would pay a dollar a day would have been fine. TV A, the average person who worked for TV A, in the construction of the dam, they made less than a dollar an hour. (laugh) R-Did it ever seem that there was a differentiating opinion by what the people in the Town of Bryson viewed the dam project as opposed to the people in the area that eventually did move? D-I am sorry I didn't get the question? R-Like did the people in Swain County and in Bryson City township itself, have a different appreciation for the jobs than the people in the logging industry area from Caney Fork and the areas where the dam would eventually have them leave? D-I am not understanding your question. R-Ifyou look at how an individual in the Town ofBryson City viewed the project as opposed to how someone who was living and working in the logging industry viewed the dam project, were they all happy that maybe they could work, or were the people in Swain County were more excited that they could work because the other people already had the logging industry jobs. D-The logging industry had gone out in 1928, it was all gone! R-So really what was who was left were still trying to make it? D-Still there, TRYING to make it, trying to make it. No roads in and no roads out. You had a highway down there called 288, finally. Originally, when the logging industry was down there you had nothing but railroad. And then in the 20's they starting building, they started building on a passable road to Deals Gap and the county borrowed the money, or the Forney Creek Township borrowed the money to build that road and I'll tell you this, you might want to cut this off just a minute ...... . End of taoed interview. I
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Oral Histories of Western North Carolina

These interviews document the communities and culture of Western North Carolina. Topics include the building of the Fontana Dam, the history of WCU, stories from local veterans, integration of the...

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