Fall 2010 Reunion!

Please save the dates of Saturday, September 25th
and Sunday, September 26th for a Main Camp reunion.

The owners of the Camp Sequoyah property have invited us to join them for the weekend and take some time to chill, enjoy the mountains, relive some memories, tell a few stories, do a little work (optional only), and smell the Sequoyah air! Just like the recent Canoe Camp gathering, these rare weekends are such great fun. We have no scheduled agenda although we would like for you to bring your memorabilia and set it up in the dining hall. Take time to walk around and trace some old footsteps. The owners now live in the beautifully renovated Hoffman Cabin (library), so I'm sure home tours can be arranged for us to see the changes. We'll see what's in store for the future.

There are three suggested but optional work projects we can help with, and a little sweat equity would be very helpful for these very meaningful parts of camp so bring some gloves and appropriate tools if you wish:

• clearing/restoring the council ring area. It is completely overgrown; would be nice to clear out, reset some stones, put wood chips on the path and around (they've got truck loads of chips from the dead hemlock debris.)

• clearing up and doing some planting and maybe installing some very small wrought iron fencing on Chief/Mrs. Chief graves. The graves look forlorn now. Plants, fencing, etc. will be provided and ready to go.

• powerwashing (or handscrubbing) the pews in the chapel, putting tung oil on them to preserve them, other chapel repairs.

If you arrive Friday, there are motels in Asheville on Merrimon Avenue and also some B&B in Weaverville.

Come on up Saturday morning. Bring your breakfast or eat before you come. Some of you, I'm sure, will want to have your Bulls eye toast cooked over a campfire...so do it! Once you are at camp, you'll need to sign a release form for insurance purposes, but we've done that before. Bring your own food for lunch and dinner each day and we can eat on the lawn or in the dining hall after we sing the Sequoyah Grace.

If we can have a Port-O-Potty delivered, it will be OK to camp on the athletic field overnight Saturday if you want to — just let me know. We'll call it a Port-O-Half. Even if you don't want to camp out, we still will need the Half, so a small donation may be in order when you get there.

We all need to say goodbye by 4pm on Sunday. There may be more information as the date nears, so stay tuned.

Please RSVP to me (jmm8 at comcast dot net) if you can come so we will know how to plan further. Just tell me how many you are bringing...and we really should resurrect and keep the Old Sequoyan Club an active and closely knit group for as long as we can. Please pass this announcement on to any old Sequoyan with whom you keep in contact.

Our thanks to the hosts for this great gesture and for accommodating us: September 25th and 26th, 2010.

— Mike Miller

Saturday, June 26, 2010

The owner of the Camp Sequoyah Canoe Camp site on Lake Nanathala, Emory Crawford, would like to host a day on the lake for all Sequoyans.  Also sponsoring the event will be the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.  Although a road now provides land access to Canoe Camp, you are still welcome to arrive, as we did as campers, via water.

Hours for the event are 11am to 3pm, to allow for driving in and out.  However, you are welcome to stay longer.

Here's how LTLT's Kate Parkerson describes the day:

Activities:

Canoes will be available for use. We will have an interactive Cherokee demonstration. Maybe a scavenger hunt of some kind if we can get some good ideas from the "campers" about things they remember.

Food:

Basic cook-out with hamburgers, hotdogs, cole-slaw, beans biscuits and lemon pie. We understand that the cooks at the camp were famous for their lemon meringue pie.

Purpose:

There are many goals for this event. One is to re-engage the Lake Nantahala campers with the property to give them the opportunity to reminisce and share their experience with their families. Another goal is to thank Emory and Martha Crawford for placing the camp in conservation with the Land Trust. The third goal is to acquaint the campers with the work of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.

There is no charge for the event, but we encourage those attending to make a contribution to the Land Trust to benefit the ongoing stewardship of the camp and to support LTLT's efforts for further conservation work in the area.

Guests will need to bring folding chairs or blankets to sit on, bathing suits should they wish to swim, or dry clothes if they end up in the water anyway. We'd love for them to bring photos or memorabilia from their camp days. If possible we'd like to know some of their stories beforehand to helps us plan the day

Further details will be posted.  Meanwhile, RSVPs should go to Kate Parkerson via email, kparkerson at ltlt dot org, or by phone, at 828-524-2711, ext. 203.

The lake is as beautiful and serene as ever.  Whether or not you went to Canoe Camp, take this opportunity to revisit this remarkable place.

Longnecker's Lumps

Twenty years ago I was on the Appalachian Trail, and a girl was making breakfast. She made biscuits and called them Longnecker's Lumps.  I asked her where she got the recipe and why they were called that.  She got it from a friend and said they were made by a guy named Steve Longnecker, but that it probably wasn't his real name.

I told her it was a real name, and that it wasn't the first time I'd had them.

— Jim Toler

Canoe Camp Saved!

On the heels of the good news about the sale of the Main Camp property to dedicated preservationists, comes more good news.  Emory Crawford, owner of Sequoyah's Canoe Camp site on Lake Aquone, aka Nantahala Lake, has obtained a conservation easement, with The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.

Read the backstory

Sequoyah property sold

As you may have heard, the Sequoyah property has been sold.  Unfortunately, the plan of the previous owners, to build a new camp, was unrealized.  The good news is that the new owners are a private party and dedicated preservationists.  They have also expressed kind feelings towards Sequoyans and will work with us in their preservation efforts.  The details have yet to be worked out, but as official news is released, you will see it here.

Stouthearted Men is a venerable Sequoyah anthem.  For the stouthearted man, "there's nothing in the world can halt or mar a plan."  This precept is put to the ultimate test, in David Grann's true tale of the search for

The Lost City of Z

There have been a number of enquiries about how Sequoyah's living legend James "Pop" Hollandsworth has been faring.  Here's an update:

Pop spent his 93rd birthday in Quebec City, Canada, at the 2008 congress of the International Camping Fellowship, where he received an award, stating:  "Your contributions have enriched the International Camping Fellowship and advanced the cause of camping across the world".

Pop said, "I guess that suggests that I'm still active and involved...with some mobility help on a 'flame red' four-wheel walker."

As of November 19, Pop and his wife Marjie had just returned from a two-week stay in their mountain home near Black Mountain, "about 15 mile due south across the Craggy Range from Sequoyah."

Now that we've had a chance to digest Thanksgiving and the aftermath, here's Sarah Vowell, the delightful raconteur who brought us her account of her travels along the Trail of Tears, talking about her book, Wordy Shipmates, about the Pilgrim Fathers.

Can there be any doubt that
C. Walton Johnson read these verses,
as his idea for Sequoyah took shapo?
 

"The Coming American"
by Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911)