The Dream, The Challenge, The People
by Bob Kranich
(Excerpt 6)
“The Lodge Called Folkestone”. You may wonder why the first half of the book is about my many adventures throughout the USA. Well, this first part explains just why my interests changed from hot rodding cars to backpacking. How the idea of a lodge came about, and just how the lodge came to be in North Carolina and next to the Smoky Mountain National Park, Deep Campground to be exact.
I Meet Al Watson
For my next Monte Sano adventure, I was intrigued by the information I had read about the Natural Well. This was on the east side just off Panorama Drive northeast. My librarian friend provided me with an excellent map of the top of the mountain. I could see that the intersection of Hutchens and Panorama Drive was just above the Natural Well. I went over to that location, and luckily there was a vacant lot just where I needed to go down. I was on foot, and it was easy to walk across the lot. No one would even notice me, even if I was trespassing. (Don’t do this today. All of the lots are now built on.) At the back of the lot, I saw that I was in luck. There was sort of a trail. It was steep as I worked my way down. There were a lot of rocks on the trail. I was amazed just how heavily forested this area was, a mixture of tall, hard wood trees and lots of small growth. This side was the state park.
I got down to a level area, and I was now on a larger trail. I guessed that it was a trail coming in from the southern area of the mountain. I remembered that the resort hotel had all kinds of carriage trails on Monte Sano for their guests to spend the time visiting the sights. Surely the Natural Well would have been one of those locations.
To my right, there was a small rock wall on the lower side. Next to it was about a twenty-five by fifteen-foot depression in the ground. There was a short, old, wood fence in very bad condition and chain link fence partly around the depression. I eased up to the chain link fence and looked down. Looking past the jagged rock outcrop, I could see a smooth-sided shaft going down, down, down.
There was a medium-aged man and two young children standing there looking at the well. I said, “It kind of looks like a cave turned on its side. Yeah, a vertical cave.”
The man said, “That’s right. And it goes down very deep, close to two hundred feet. By the way, I’m Al...Al Watson. These are my children, Joe and Carol. We live on the top of Monte Sano and decided to go out for a walk. What’s your name?”
“Oh,” I said, “I’m Bob Kranich. I’m in the army at Redstone Arsenal. I’m in the Nike missile school. I’m interested in all the history about Monte Sano and the old hotel. I’ve been coming up here to the top on the mountain on the weekends and hiking around.”
Al said, “We were about to go back up. Bob, why don’t you come with us back to the house, and have a glass of tea.”
I responded, “ I’d like that, thank you.”
We went the way of the trail coming in from the south. It seems that they, too, had a shortcut of their own. We walked a short distance back on the southern trail, and when we came to a very small stream, we just followed it up to Panorama Drive. Then by walking a few houses north, we came to their street, Skyline Drive. They lived a couple of houses down the block.
Al showed me into their house and introduced me to his wife. I then was served a delicious glass of iced tea. They were a very nice family. Joe was ten, and Carol, seven.
I told Al that I had seen the old hotel’s chimney, and looked around the grounds of the old hotel. I mentioned that the Huntsville librarian had helped me with books and maps. After that, I had hiked up and found the old railroad trestle. Some of this was new to him because locals usually don’t have the time to search out the nearby history. It seems that Al was very busy working in personnel at the IBM facility on the NASA part of the Arsenal.
I told Al that I was starting to like hiking. “You know Al, there is a place that I would really like to hike in and explore. I car camped a few years back in the Smoky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful.”
Al said, “I have a small house on Deep Creek near Bryson City.”
I responded, “Why, that is the area I really liked. I camped in the national park campground there. I also walked all the way up along Deep Creek to Indian Creek Falls.”
Al replied, “Bob, that is an area I’m real familiar with. I use to ride my bike on that road. At the Indian Creek Junction, you can go either all the way up Deep Creek until the road turns into a trail, or up Indian Creek to a turnaround. Those are where the old roads ran, and now the rangers use them. Well Bob, if you ever get out of the Army, you can leave your car at my house up on Deep Creek, and go on a hike from there. Part of my life was spent in that house being raised by my aunt. I also know a lot about the trails there because that is what I did for adventure. Ride my bike around the area, go hiking, and exploring in the Park. Why, we might even do some hiking together some day.”
“I appreciate the information, and when I get out of this Army, I’ll get back to you,” I replied.
I visited Al and the family a couple more times before I graduated from the Nike Missile school and was sent orders to go to Korea. They even had me up for a meal. Since I liked to draw, I made a sketch of both of the children and gave it to them.
South Korea
On December 2, 1966, I graduated after 33 weeks of training from the U. S. Army’s Missile and Munitions School. I was now officially a Nike Missile test equipment and repair specialist. Since I hadn’t received any orders, the sergeant had me report to the base non-denomination Protestant church chaplain. I was to help them as needed. I got to sweep around the inside, and polish a lot of brass in the front of the church. When they didn’t have anything for me to do, I read books in the Sunday schoolroom. However, the best part was the covered dish suppers.
On December 16, they called me into the base headquarters. They had my orders, and on the 21st they shipped me out to my home in Tampa, Florida, for ten days of R & R. After that, I had four days to get to Ft. Lewis, Washington, for my flight to Kimpo, Korea, via Japan.
I was off on my next adventure. On January 5, 1967, I found myself on a big Northwest Orient “Red Tail” Pacific flight with a full plane of soldiers. This plane was not composed of one large Army group. Instead, we were replacements for individuals who had left or were going home from Korea.
From The Author:
This is a new book. It is about the Lodge I built in the Smoky Mountains, near Bryson City, and Deep Creek campground, North Carolina. Having been from Florida, I know that a lot of Floridians love to visit the Smoky Mountains National Park. Therefore hopefully you will enjoy my story of the building of “A Lodge Called Folkestone”.
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