The floods from the melting snow unearthed two old metal signs on the property in Brevard, North Carolina, which we found on a morning walk. They fallowed under cover of sweetgum leaves and time. The signs, rusted and riddled with bullet holes, were still legible, and demonstrated the disdain for the hippies that once made the property their home, before they were forced out by a more puritanical wave of valley residents.
The property sits on a geologic fault line, and the streams on the property are headwaters for the French Broad River, one of the oldest rivers in the world. The property was a summer camp in a former age, and the ruins of the old stone buildings are still visible. As I mentioned in a previous post, the property was once a common stopping ground of a folk-singing, free-loving, cache of hippies and musicians, including Pete Seeger and Woodie Guthrie.
These signs are further reminders that we were not the first to enjoy the hills and fields where generations of boys spent their summers away from home and hippies did – well, what hippies do…
In the seven years my family has been coming here, the land has become a part of us, a memory we carry with us in our day to day lives in Florida. I will never know who put the bullet holes in the signs, but they will remain nevertheless. We have left our own marks on the property, no less visible or timeless. Generations from now, the cabins may fall and the sapling white pines may overtake them, but our time on the property will still be felt.
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ST. AMAND PHOTOGRAPHY 