Road To Nowhere

In the 1930s and 1940s, Swain County, North Carolina gave up the majority of its private land to the Federal Government for the creation of Fontana Lake and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hundreds of people were forced to leave the small Smoky Mountain communities that had been their homes for generations.

With the creation of the Park, their homes were gone, and so was the road to those communities. Old Highway 288 was buried beneath the deep waters of Fontana Lake.

The Federal government promised to replace Highway 288 with a new road called Lakeview Drive. Lakeview Drive was to have stretched along the north shore of Fontana Lake, from Bryson City, N.C. to Fontana, N.C. 30 miles to the west. Lakeview Drive was of special importance to those displaced residents, it was to have provided access to the old family cemeteries where generations of ancestors remained behind.

Lakeview Drive fell victim to an environmental issue and construction was stopped, with the road ending just at the end of this tunnel, about six miles into the park.

The environmental issue was eventually resolved, but the roadwork was never resumed. And Swain County's citizens gave the unfinished Lakeview Drive its popular, albeit unofficial name The Road To Nowhere. The legal issue of whether to build the road remains unresolved and The Road To Nowhere also remains.

On weekends throughout the summer, the Park Service still ferries groups of Swain County residents across Fontana Lake to visit their old family cemetaries for Decoration Days and family reunions.

There are many hiking trails in the area and is a great place to see the autumn colors!

Anthony Benjamin is an avid world traveler, lover of nature and animals. He loves to write and share his wealth of information and adventures in his writings. His favorite place to retreat and write is his summer home, secluded high on a mountaintop in the Great Smoky Mountains. A visit to his website is a true delight: http://www.appalachian-treasures.com