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Shoals bidding to house trail’s HQ

By John Thompson
Elizabethton Bureau Chief
jthompson@johnsoncitypress.com

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ELIZABETHTON — There was another gathering of Overmountain Men and Women from Upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia at Sycamore Shoals on Wednesday night, but this gathering was much more peaceful than the one that took place in 1780.

Local dignitaries in suits mingled with historical re-enactors in late 18th century costumes during a public meeting on relocating the headquarters of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.

Paul Carson, superintendent of the national historic trail, said a new headquarters is needed. He cited several reasons, including cramped space in the current headquarters and the need to be more centrally located on the 330-mile length of the trail. The headquarters is located near the southern end of the trail at Kings Mountain National Military Park.

“The headquarters is one room in a building,” Carson said. He said he has no room for administrative staff, and staff support is a growing need as the trail continues to expand its regional presence.

“The trail is 330 miles long. You can’t manage it all with just one person,” Carson said. He is the only federal employee assigned to the national trail.

Carson said the new headquarters also needs to be more centrally located because of the number of meetings and events he needs to attend along the trail.

“There needs to be a more timely response ... the travel time and the travel costs need to be less,” Carson said. Travel time to sections of the trail can now take as much as five hours, which means less time on site for Carson.

Carson said the new headquarters should be big enough to provide office space for future administrative staff, meeting space and storage space.

To meet the need, a feasibility study and environmental assessment is being conducted. The public hearing at Sycamore Shoals was scheduled to get input for the study and decision-making process. Additional meetings will be held this month in Marion and Morganton, N.C., and Gaffney, S.C.

Carson said one of the reasons for the meetings is to gather insight from the many partners who have contributed to the trail’s success.

The public meeting attracted several community leaders, including Carter County Mayor Johnny Holder and Elizabethton City Manager Fred Edens.

“Sycamore Shoals and the Overmountain Men are extremely important parts of our history and we want to do anything we can to encourage the headquarters to be located here,” Holder said.

“I am all for the headquarters being located here. There is so much history here and the state park, it just seems logical to have the headquarters here,” Edens said.

A group of 31 representatives from Abingdon, Va., many dressed in 18th century clothing, attended the meeting and lobbied for the headquarters to be located in Washington County, Va.

Rick Humphreys, chairman of Abingdon’s Musterground Committee, said the headquarters would be a nice fit for the community’s Heartwood artisan center, which is expected attract 300,000 visitors annually from the Interstate 81 corridor.

Carson said the current time line calls for a decision to be reached on the headquarter’s relocation by next winter.

Anyone who did not attend Wednesday’s meeting but would like to comment on the relocation may do so online at the National Park Service’s public comment site at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/OVVI or by writing to Paul Carson, superintendent, Overmountain Victory NHT, 2635 Park Road, Blacksburg, S.C., 29702; or by e-mailing him at paul_carson@nps.gov.