The Dream, The Challenge, The People
by Bob Kranich
(Excerpt 5)
“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.
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They informed me that since I was classified 1-A, I was deemed available immediately for military service. I was to report for basic training. Enough for my fun traffic planning job. I reported, and the next thing I knew, I was in Fort Benning, Georgia, in U S Army Basic Training. I was getting more physical exercise than I ever wanted, like forced march hikes to the rifle range. I graduated a couple months later in March. My orders were cut, sending me after a two-week vacation, to the U S Army Missile School, Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. At Redstone, I almost wasn’t allowed to get the eight months of training that would keep me out of Vietnam. As I was processing in, a clerk said, “Here’s another one.” He showed my orders to the fellow with higher rank next to him. This guy said, “Soldier, you have to go down five buildings on the left, and talk to the sergeant down there.” I didn’t know what was happening, but I proceeded to go down five buildings. It was a very small building. I entered. In the center of the room was a desk with a sergeant sitting there, and around him on the walls were boards with job titles and descriptions.
I said, “Sergeant, I was told to come down here and show you my orders.” I handed him my orders.
He took a look and said, “Soldier, I can’t give you this school.” He glanced at his boards and said, “I could give you Hawk Maintenance.”
I knew that Hawk Maintenance training meant that I would be heading to Vietnam. The training they said that I couldn't have, number 22L20, was Nike Missile Maintenance and Repair. This training was for high-flying bombers which wasn't a threat in Vietnam. The Hawk missile training was against fighter planes, definitely a Vietnam requirement. Now my dad had told me, never argue with Army sergeant. So, I made what was probably to be the most important speech in my entire life. “Sergeant, I don’t know what’s the best thing to do, but in civilian life, I was in school, and had electronic and mechanical training. Whatever you think is best, these are just the orders I have.”
He looked at me kind of questioningly and said, “Just one second soldier, I’ll be right back.”
He went to the back room, probably talking to a second lieutenant, his supervisor. He may even have spoken up for me and my school.
He came right back and said, “Soldier, I’m going to give you this school.” He took my orders, stamped and signed them, and gave them to me.
I took them, said “Thank you, sergeant,” and headed for the door as he said, “Good luck.”
It didn’t sink in until some time later, just how fortunate I was! The Good Lord again was looking out for me.
Since we were in school, the Army made it real easy for us. We did not have to do KP (kitchen work) or any other kind of army work, just study, and go to school. On the weekends after Saturday mornings, we were on our own. We didn’t even need a pass to go off base, in fact, it was an open base.
Since I was interested in history, I started to go down to the Huntsville Public Library and look up the history of the Huntsville area. In fact, they had a room just for that subject, and a librarian in there to help. I got to know her. She was a nice older lady, and she would find all kinds of books for me on Huntsville. Besides the missile base, museum, NASA rocket motor testing facility, the next thing that interested me was the mountain just on the edge of town, Monte Sano. So I started reading up on it.
Monte Sano is located on the eastern edge of Huntsville, Alabama. It is a mesa and is composed of limestone. It is about 1,600 feet above sea level, and rises approximately 1,000 feet above the Tennessee Valley floor. Monte Sano’s name means in Spanish, “Mountain of health.” Most of Monte Sano is a preserve. The western slope is the Monte Sano Nature Preserve. The eastern part is Monte Sano State Park. On the very western portion of the top is a residential neighborhood.
Because of the elevation, it was always cooler on the top of the mountain, and people would come up to get away from the heat in the city below. There was also clean and cool water from the many springs. The mountain was named in the early 1800’s when people began to build small cabins there to live in during the summer. The first road was started in the mid-1800’s, and it later became a Toll Gate Road. The road that gets people up to the top today was built in 1936 and is called Bankhead Parkway. It pretty much follows the original Toll Gate Road.
In 1886, a three–story hotel was built on top. It was large, with 223 rooms, and it was billed as a health resort. Prominent guests visited, to name a few, William Vanderbilt, William Astor, Helen Keller, and railroad magnate Jay Gould. They would arrive by railroad in Huntsville, and then go up the mountain by carriages called “tally-hos.” Two years later, in 1888, a one-stop railroad was constructed to the top of the mountain, right up to the hotel.
The hotel had many amusements and activities, which included carriage trails leading to natural attractions, locations, and overlooks all around the mountain. For my first exploration on the mountain, I decided that I would like to look for the old hotel. The information I had mentioned that there was just the remains of an old chimney left. I could see by the maps in the books and brochures I had that there was both a Chimney Road and a Railway Ave.
I decided to hike to the top. I started at the bottom just where the Toll Gate Road from town turns into the Bankhead Parkway. I walked along the road the two to three miles to the top. At the top, I had a couple of blocks to go to get to Chimney Road. After some searching, I found the old chimney which is about three stories high and made of brick. With some careful looking about, I also found some foundation remains. I ate my lunch, and headed back down the Parkway.
A few weeks later, I decided to find just where the railroad left Toll Gate Road and headed up the mountain. I knew because of the steep grade where Bankhead Parkway first starts, it wasn’t there. Then I noticed a small road heading towards the mountain from about the same point off of Toll Gate just before Bankhead. Today, it is probably the beginning of the Old Railroad Bed Trail. I hiked up that way, and it turned into a small trail. Because of the gradual way the path was climbing, I thought that it could have been the railroad grade. A short distance later, sure enough, there were the remains of a trestle as the railroad switch backed to the south. The reason there was a trestle was because it had to cross Fagan Creek. I was really proud of myself. Today, there is a formal hiking trail there, but I was there when there was wasn't.
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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