COOLEEMEE — Claude R. Horn Jr. of Mocksville may not look like Santa Claus, but he gave Cooleemee an enormous, if slightly late, Christmas present Thursday — nearly half of the Rowan County property the town needs for its RiverPark at Cooleemee Falls-The Bullhole.
And he sold the town the remainder of his Rowan County land in two separate, slightly larger pieces, for $120,070.99.
Funds from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund will pay for one tract of slightly more than 13 acres, and funds raised by the RiverPark Task Force will buy the second one, of a little more than 6 acres.
The gift of 18.41 acres and the two purchases bring the total to 37.84 acres on the Rowan County side of the South Yadkin River, including the historic and legendary “bullhole” from which the future park derives its name.
This is the first land acquired for the park, and Horn’s property represents nearly half the 85 acres the task force hopes to acquire.
“It is a great Christmas present,” said Lynn Rumley, director of Cooleemee Historical Association and its RiverPark Task Force. “We’ve begun. This is really a beginning, and we hope to break ground sometime in the spring.”
The property was transferred at the Salisbury office of Malcolm Blankenship, attorney for the town of Cooleemee, from Horn to Cooleemee Mayor Grady Spry Jr. on behalf of the town. Present were Horn and his wife, Dorothy; Spry; Rumley; Jeff Michaels, of the LandTrust of Central Carolina; and Jane Simpson, fund-raising consultant for the RiverPark Task Force.
Horn says he bought the property from Burlington Industries when the company disposed of parcels around its former mill in Cooleemee. He said he had “sort of a park in mind because it’s a nice setting.”
It’s going to take a lot more work than one person could accomplish, he said, but added that the “people really are interested in building something, so I think it can happen now.”
Not many places have something really dramatic, he added, like the river and the rocks and the dam.
“It’s so different, a nice change of place, and still close to home,” he said, “but no one ever had any interest in developing it, in creating something there in the past.”
Now, though, “times have changed and people are civic minded. It’s going to be a reality. The cause is great. I’m sure it will take a good while, but it had to start somewhere.”
Ken Sales, chairman of the RiverPark Task Force, was under the weather and unable to attend the closing.
But that didn’t dim his pleasure.
“There are just so many people that we have to be thankful for who helped us get where we are today,” he said. “A lot of people wondered if we could do what we set out to do three years ago. Now it’s a reality. Where we are now is just wonderful. We got a lot of support.
“We really do want to thank Claude Horn for cooperating with us on getting his land, and we’re now very confident we’re going to get where we’re headed. When good people get together, good things happen. We’re going to preserve that for many, many generations to come.”
The RiverPark Task Force is negotiating now to buy parcels on the Davie County side from Sue and Frank Earnhardt and Roger and Debbie Spillman.
When finished, the park on the South Yadkin River will offer canoe access to the river, trails, fishing, swimming, picnic areas and primitive camping.
The task force recently hired West Fourth Landscape Architecture of Winston Salem to complete a detailed master plan by late February, after which bidding for various components of park development will begin, Rumley said.
Park supporters say the total cost of the park will reach $2.5 million. The first phase, which will cost about $1.2 million, must be completed by June 2002 because of timing on a $250,000 grant from the N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund for phase one.
The first phase covers most of the development, except a walking bridge over the South Yadkin connecting the two sides of the park, a little depot sandwich shop and a replica of Charlie Carter’s river boat that travelled the river regularly for many years carrying mail and passengers .
Phase one will include a river outfitter’s shop, two large picnic shelters, restrooms on both sides of the river, canoe portage, trails, picnic tables and benches.
So far the task force has raised $837,000, including several large grants, among them $250,000 from the state parks trust; $167,000, from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund; $50,000 from the Woodson Foundation; $300,000 in federal dollars, which N.C. Rep. Richard Burr , who represents Davie County, helped secure; and more than 200 individual contributions. Many individuals have bought “deeds” to square yards of the Bullhole.
Today's News