Pigeon River

Let that fire guide your way.

Roll on, Pigeon River.

Roll on to Tennessee.

Say goodbye, sweet Carolina.

The Black Cat, volume four, number eight, May eighteen ninety-nine.

Section one, On Pigeon River, by Jeannie Drake.

When Lieutenant Richard Carroll reached the mountain district in North Carolina to which he had been sent, it was with hourly temptation to swear over what he felt to be the proverbial wild goose chase.

A needle in a haystack, a spring of water in the ocean, might be as easily found as a deserter in these, his native wilds.

The Black Cat, Volume 4, Number 8, May 1899.

Section 1, On Pigeon River, by Jeannie Drake.

when lieutenant richard carroll reached the mountain district in north carolina to which he had been sent it was with hourly temptation to swear over what he felt to be the proverbial wild goose chase a needle in a haystack a spring of water in the ocean might be as easily found as a deserter in these his native wilds in the presence of the two men specially detailed with him for this service it was not his to reason why but his to do his superior's orders if he could but in any case to maintain a respectful soldierly silence concerning them with corporal brown however a man to be trusted he could let himself out a little in the name of heaven brown he cried ruefully when they were alone together after rations and quarters for all had been arranged in the old mill what are we here to do to waste time as we have been wasting it for the last week tramping over a country where no railroad has ever been into every manner of gap and hole and thicket up and down round and about hither and thither and not a soul among these stupid natives able to guide or even give us a word of direction not willing maybe said brown dryly but able enough they're not so stupid as they look you see lieutenant these here mountaineers ain't no ways in favor of the war They ain't got no cotton and they ain't got no slaves.

They don't give a darn for the Confederacy nor state's rights.

And then you think, okay, well, is it because she was this sort of American success story? And I could certainly argue she might possess the greatest one of those ever written, ever.

She started life in a one-room cabin on the foot of the Pigeon River in the hills of Tennessee.

with her, I think, 11 siblings and parents.

She's born into abject poverty and you look where she made it to.

She bawled.

She was very upset.

But it's just, what a uniquely American story that this little girl that was raised in that cabin by the Pigeon River with 13 other people in it, you know, wearing clothes stitched together from rags is just being universally loved and praised.

And

Yeah, the recovery started, of course, right after the rain started letting up.

We had major flooding, catastrophic flooding on the Pigeon River, which was an area through Haywood County that was hit hardest around Canton.

and Crusoe.

And after the floodwaters receded, which actually happened that night into the morning, the cleanup began, restoration, if you will, of some of the properties, but so much damage obviously to clean up and it took, well, it's been over a week now and essentially they're still cleaning up in a lot of areas.

Yeah, that's right.

And we're looking at some photos right now that were sent to us from a shot above.

This is in Canton last week, as you were mentioning, along the Pigeon River.

They are the epicenter, the visual reference to what this flooding really means.