On Sunday, October 12, the National Park Service opened the road to Noland Creek for the only time in 2014.  Park rangers led a caravan of people deep into the woods on the little gravel road that parallels the creek.  The event was the annual Decoration Day at Wiggins Cemetery.  Leading this caravan was Lawrence Hyatt.  Mr. Hyatt's family lived in these woods before being forced out of their home by the government in 1944, due to the construction of Fontana Dam.  Mr. Hyatt knows this area intimately.  We filmed as he recollected memories of his childhood in these woods at various points along the road.  One of these stops was where his family home once stood.  The stone foundation still stands, as a testament to lives that were interrupted due to construction of the dam. Wiggins cemetery is the smallest of all the remaining cemeteries on the North Shore. There are just three graves, all infants.  Our crew stood in the rain and filmed this timeless spot in the remote woods of Great Smoky Mountains Park, where these poor souls had spent so little time on this earth.  The cold rain that fell upon us seemed to emphasize the poignancy of the moment.  We were all moved by the occasion.  In the summer of 2015 our crew will once again return to Bryson City, to film more interviews.  

                                                                         

      We interviewed Helen Cable Vance (pictured here with daughter Lee Woods)
      about the North Shore Cemetery Association, and her recollections of leaving
      her home when TVA flooded the Little Tennessee River valley during WWII.

                           Lawrence Hyatt is a wealth of information on the North
                           Shore, and the Lauada cemetery.  Thank you, Mr. Hyatt!

                                            DP Brooks Lee, hard at work.

                 Due to the government shutdown, we were unable to film the interview
              with Lawrence Hyatt on Noland Creek, at the site of his family's old home.

                    Lake View Drive, AKA "The Road To Nowhere," in Bryson City, NC.

                            At Christine Proctor's house, with Lawrence Hyatt and  
                          Lost Souls of Lauada DPs Brooks Lee and Jess Marrano.

                    We did drive into the park on US-441 and up to Newfound Gap,
                           stopping at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, to see the elk.

                        At Graveyard Fields Lower Falls, on The Blue Ridge Parkway.

We returned to Bryson City the weekend of October 12, 2013 for the fourth shoot for Lost Souls of Lauada.  Due to the government shutdown, we were unable to film in the park.  We will have to wait until next spring to film the cemetery visitations off of "The Road To Nowhere."  We hope that Mr. Hyatt will be there, so that we can interview him at the site of his family's old home on Noland Creek.

We were able to interview Mr. Hyatt at the home of the ever gracious Christine Proctor.  On Friday, we stopped in Waynesville, to interview Helen Cable Vance at the home of her daughter, Lee Woods.  We were extremely grateful to have Lee invite us into her home, and Helen Vance was a very lively and enthusiastic interviewee for our film.  Thank you Helen and Lee!

My small crew and I will return to Bryson City and Great Smoky Mountains National Park the weekend of October 12, 2013 for the fourth time for my documentary film Lost Souls of Lauada.  On Friday and Saturday, we will film interviews with persons who have close ties to the events that took place here seventy years ago, during the height of World War Two.

On Sunday, The National Park Service will open the North Shore cemetery access road for the only time this year.  This road is off of The Road To Nowhere, and goes about ten miles back into the wilds of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  We will drive behind Mr. Lawrence Hyatt as he drives to Noland Creek, and the site where his family's home once stood.  During WWII, Mr. Hyatt's family was forced out of their home by the TVA (along with hundreds of other families).  Their home was then destroyed, as were all of the other homes.  We will film Mr. Hyatt (and others) recalling what it was like to have to leave his home behind, and his feelings about it all today.  Also on this day, members of The North Shore Cemetery Association will be at Wiggins cemetery for their annual decoration day.  We would like to film this as well.  We will also shoot lots of B-roll of the surrounding area and the spectacular Fall colors (which will nicely match the footage from when we shot there last October).  When we return, I will finally have all of the footage I need to assemble my first cut of Lost Souls of Lauada. 

Over my spring break from UNC Wilmington, I travelled to Bryson City for a third time, to gather materials for my film, "Lost Souls of Lauada."  On Friday, March 8, I visited the Swain County Genealogical & Historical Society.  I was met there by Christine Proctor, Lawrence Hyatt and Brian Aldrich.  Mr. Hyatt is almost 80 years old, and was born in the area now referred to as the North Shore.  He and his wife were on their way from their home in Tennessee to a funeral in Sylva, and graciously agreed to stop in Bryson City to let me interview him.  We first interviewed Brian Aldrich at the North Shore Cemetery Association's annual reunion last October.  He was kind enough to come in this day to let me conduct an audio interview in order to add some new information we didn't get during our initial interview.  Thanks to Christine for arranging these interviews.

While at the Genealogical & Historical Society, I accessed the "TVA North Shore Cemetery Removal" archive.  I scanned and made copies of the cemetery maps that the TVA created when relocating the over one thousand graves from areas that would be underwater when the valley was flooded during the Second World War, creating Fontana Lake.  I will use these maps in my film.

I spoke with Swain County Commissioner David Monteith, whose family came from the North Shore.  He gave me a DVD copy of a film he made, "'The North Shore Story," and gave me permission to use any of the old photographs of the North Shore contained on the DVD, as well as permission to use anything of value that I may find on the swaincountync.gov website.  David is a gold mine of information on the North Shore.

I also got some good shots of the "Road to Nowhere" tunnel entrance, to complement the footage we shot last October from inside the tunnel (it was raining that day, so we couldn't shoot the outside of the tunnel).

As the ground was wet from a snowstorm earlier in the week, a handful of members of the Lauada Cemetery Association that had planned to meet at the cemetery on Saturday to work, cancelled their work day, thus ending my plans to shoot there that day.  And in an ironic twist, the Bojangles in Bryson City. where the Lauada Cemetery Association holds their meetings, and where I had hoped to film an impromptu get together, had just recently been torn down!  A new Bojangles is supposed to take the place of the old one.

I have been in contact with Christine Proctor regarding my upcoming, and third "Lost Souls" shoot in and around Bryson City, NC.  My major goals for this trip are to: 1) film an interview with members of the Lauada Cemetery Association at the cemetery; 2) shoot "The Road to Nowhere" tunnel entrance; 3) take my photo scanner to the Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society and scan archived maps of North Shore cemeteries.  The weather at this time of year in the Smokies could be anything from snow to 60º days.  I'm still searching for someone to crew with me on this shoot, but I will do it all myself if that's what it takes.  FREE trip to the Smokies for a few days, anyone?!  Contact me at wbd4242@uncw.edu for details.

Three Gorges Dam social consequences
My goal upon graduation is to expand my film into a larger story.  What has recently taken place in China, is the same thing that happened to families of the North Shore almost seventy years ago, except this time on a massive scale.  My desire is to bring together some of the displaced families of the Yangtze River Valley and former residents of the North Shore.  The former North Shore residents who are still living (and their descendants), may be able to provide some measure of comfort to the newly displaced in China.  My hope is that they will share their stories, learn from each other, build new and lasting relationships, and help each other heal: old wounds for the North Shore people, and new wounds for the people in China.

Last October, Kelly Strawinski (DP), Jessie Hagen (Producer) and I travelled to Hazel Creek, on the North Shore of Fontana Lake.  There, we visited the remains of Proctor, NC.  Accompanying us was Christine Proctor, who led us to Proctor cemetery.  Proctor is the oldest cemetery on the North Shore.  A monument there honors Christine's ancestors Moses and Patience Proctor, the first white settlers on the North Shore.