Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Solola Lodge on Noland Creek

  • wcu_picturing-5597.jpg
  • This 1942 image of Solola Lodge, the Noland Creek cabin of Irving Kip Stearns (1895-1942) and his wife Betty Grueninger Stearns (1896-1971), is part of the Stearns-Grueninger collection. The 101 acre tract of land cabin they owned were taken by the Tennessee Valley Authority when Fontana Dam was constructed. 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.