Poppy and I visited the small town of Saxapahaw, North Carolina. We came for a quiet hike on a rainy Sunday morning at the Saxapahaw Island State Park. We walked a mile around the 30 acre park in between rain showers enjoying the spring day - lots of birds and squirrels visible all around. The Haw River flows into the Army Corps of Engineer’s dam reservoir at Jordan Lake. I learned about this beautiful place after attending an Earth Day celebration last year and meeting dedicated volunteers with the Haw River Assembly who’ve been helping to protect the river system for over 40 years! There are many upcoming activities to join the group and in visit this interesting town.

A cotton mill began construction in 1844 and operated for 150 years until 1994 after a tornado damaged the mill. The Jordan family revitalized the mill site and restored the factory into restaurants, stores and residential buildings.

With only about 2,000 current residents living in the town, we were surprised at how many people came out for Sunday brunch. We couldn’t get a table at the Eddy Pub; luckily, we sat at the beautiful copper-covered bar and noticed the huge valves refitted to serve kegs of beer. The barkeep said people come from all over the state to visit Saxapahaw on the weekends. We need to go back for a river tour and visit the history museum. A sign at the park says the town got its name from the Sissapahaw Indians and an explorer in 1701 described the area as the “flower of the Carolinas.” A grist mill to grind cereal was built in 1768 prior to the cotton mill about 75 years later.

This area appears to be rich in history, perhaps a model for sustainability, but I’d be interested to hear from local Native Americans and descendants of slaves, who had to dislocate and labor in the cotton fields, likely will have different viewpoints for us to consider. From an environmental perspective, the current status is a great improvement over the conditions of working in the cotton mill or water pollution impacts on the Haw River. We’ve largely moved those impacts to Asian countries.