90. Moore County -- Carthage -- 3/15/08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_County%2C_NC
All of a sudden, it became March 2008. How did that happen? Well, all that means is that it's time for more Courthouse Chasing excitement! And boy, did we get some this time. I dedicate this entry to Seth and Amos, who have lived in Moore County.
I had the urge to do some chasing, so I started calling folks to go. Between the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament and UNC Spring Break, it was hard to find anyone to go. However, there was one trooper who could make it: Martin.
Despite how much Martin wanted to visit Martin County due to his name (ok, it wasn't a LOT, but he mentioned it), I told him we were headed almost due south to pick up Moore and Richmond Counties. Martin likes local history and stuff too, so we decided that we'd make a day out of this journey and visit the House in the Horseshoe in Moore County and the National Railroad Museum in Richmond. We did our research the night before, and we were off the next morning.
While driving through rural Chatham County, Martin said, "Hey, why don't we check out the Devil's Tramping Ground [while we drive down NC 902]?" I said, "Awesome! Let's do it!" But we realized neither of us knew how to get there. But we knew we were headed the right direction, which we were, but we turned off before we would have gotten there. One day, I'm going back to the DTG.
So, we crossed into Moore County. Even though I grew up in Fayetteville, I didn't spend much time in this adjoining county. If you look at a map, Moore County touches Cumberland County with about 1.5 miles of itself. I'm fascinated by little stems of counties and states. For example, one day I'm going to go to the Kentucky Bend. I read in a book that the border between Moore and Harnett Counties was originally along a line of trees with two and/or three axe marks in them. This way of making borders happened a lot, but this one is close to my heart. I still think some rich land owner owned all the property and refused to be incorporated into an adjacent county...the books don't say that stuff. I remember one of the first times I drove into Moore County from Cumberland on Vass Rd. (NC 690) and thought how special I was to be on the only road in the world that crosses that border.
My first real memory of Moore County was when I worked at the 1999 US Open Golf Tournament at Pinehurst #2. I worked a concession stand, selling beer at age 16 while eating hot dogs and serving customers at the same time (in the food industry, those are both no-nos). But, once again, I remember thinking how special I was to be at the US Open breaking food industry no-nos. I saw Payne Stewart play his last tournament before his untimely plane crash (he won the tournament), as well as Tiger Woods and watched what was going to be Jack Nicklaus's last ever US Open putt...until he played again the next year.
On the bus to the US Open from Hoke County, the sign read, "Welcome to Moore County, home of the 1999 US Open." On the way back to Hoke County from Moore, the sign read, "Welcome to Hoke County, home of the NC Turkey Festival." I thought that was funny. I love NC.
Also, in high school, my physics teacher owned a gym in Aberdeen (in Moore County). He would give us extra credit to drive out to his gym and climb on his climbing wall. I did that a few times. Our high school marching band also played in the band competition at Union Pines High School.
Ok, back to the recent trip. We stopped at the House in the Horseshoe, which is a really old house. You should read the article. Welcome back from reading the article! Martin and I walked into the gift shop where you're supposed to begin the tour. No one was there! We wandered around for a while, and decided to walk up to the house. There's a little museum in an old tobacco-like barn, so we watched a reenactment of the stand-off. We walked out, and the dude on the lawn tractor drove up to us and asked if we wanted a tour. He was the only one working that day, and we were his first visitors all day. He gave us a personal tour, which was pretty cool, and joked around with him a lot. It's amazing to think people 200 years ago were just as ridiculous as people today. Mr. Alston, the Whig, didn't have many friends, and this Fanning guy, a Tory, went EVERYWHERE around NC causing trouble. Every time Alston turned around, there was Fanning giving him a hard time. They both escaped from things a lot. I asked the dude where the slave quarters went, since I like knowing about what REALLY happened on plantations. Some people think plantations are "great!" and especially down south, we like to name gated communities and gated towns like St. James Plantation with the name "plantation." I think that's kinda sick, because for the 5 people LOVING their plantation, there were 50 more people that loathed it (i.e., slaves). The dude said that they were all torn down at the beginning of the 1900s because it wasn't a historical building yet, and the person living there tore down everything that was dilapidated. Makes sense.
We grabbed a quick Geocache, and we were off.
If you didn't know already, Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Whispering Pines, Pinebluff nor any other "Pine" city created in order to lure people off the passing trains into a piney health resort, is the county seat. Carthage is! That's right--you learned about it in school. Carthage has been around for a long time, dominating the Mediterranean region...oh wait...that's in Tunisia. Wrong Carthage. Carthage, NC is a bit younger than that. Carthage is also know for its Buggy Festival.
We found the courthouses (yes, two here, right next to each other), and snapped some quick pictures. I'm wearing my 2008 Chapel Hill/Carrboro CROP Hunger Walk shirt with a Hawaiian shirt on it for fun. The courthouses seemed to fit the stereotype of pretty, older courthouse, with a newer, "modern 60s/70s feel" courthouse to replace it. If you go to the front of the new courthouse, there's a WWI memorial with canons around it, which I thought was interesting...it's not a Civil War monument! We're standing at the "back" of the old courthouse.
We started walking around to the front of the courthouse, and we noticed...SLOT CARS! Martin and I thought that was rad. So we walked inside. We were the only ones in here (noticing a trend?), and we spoke to the owner forever. He was a really great guy. He just wanted to have a place to race slot cars, and there wasn't anywhere around. Also, he didn't like how many slot car places charge $24 an hour and some you have to buy a car first. He only charges $5 PER DAY! It's just enough to pay the rent and utilities with a little to take home. He even encouraged us to play for free. So the three of us raced around the track for a good long time, even when our cars would fly off the track and slam into the track walls. Man, it was fun. I gave him 5 bucks anyway, because he was awesome. He said many of the local politicians, judges, etc., come in to play on their breaks sometimes. Richard Petty and other racers have even come in and signed autographs for people. He has pictures of these folks on the walls. When you're in Carthage, check out the slot car place! He told us to go get something to eat at Court Coffee next door.
So we did.
Meatball subs and salad for a 5 bucks. Awesome. We talked to the lady working in there for a good long while (and the really nice guy who commented on my UNC sweatshirt). We weren't the only ones in here this time--there were some bikers (motorcycles) from Fayetteville in there...I knew they weren't from there (Moore Countiers have a very strong accent), and the bikers eating sounded...like me! That was one of the few times I could actually pick out a "Fayetteville" accent. There isn't much of one, but you can hear it when you place someone born and bred in Fayetteville next to someone from Moore County. The lady working in the restaurant, Martin and I talked about John Edwards for a while, because she was from Robbins. John Edwards grew up in Robbins, NC, in Moore County. Now, he lives in Chapel Hill. Apparently, there's a sign in Robbins that mentions the fact that he grew up there, and his house is "off to the right and 3 houses down." We wanted to go see it, but Richmond County awaited.
I had the urge to do some chasing, so I started calling folks to go. Between the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament and UNC Spring Break, it was hard to find anyone to go. However, there was one trooper who could make it: Martin.
Despite how much Martin wanted to visit Martin County due to his name (ok, it wasn't a LOT, but he mentioned it), I told him we were headed almost due south to pick up Moore and Richmond Counties. Martin likes local history and stuff too, so we decided that we'd make a day out of this journey and visit the House in the Horseshoe in Moore County and the National Railroad Museum in Richmond. We did our research the night before, and we were off the next morning.
While driving through rural Chatham County, Martin said, "Hey, why don't we check out the Devil's Tramping Ground [while we drive down NC 902]?" I said, "Awesome! Let's do it!" But we realized neither of us knew how to get there. But we knew we were headed the right direction, which we were, but we turned off before we would have gotten there. One day, I'm going back to the DTG.
So, we crossed into Moore County. Even though I grew up in Fayetteville, I didn't spend much time in this adjoining county. If you look at a map, Moore County touches Cumberland County with about 1.5 miles of itself. I'm fascinated by little stems of counties and states. For example, one day I'm going to go to the Kentucky Bend. I read in a book that the border between Moore and Harnett Counties was originally along a line of trees with two and/or three axe marks in them. This way of making borders happened a lot, but this one is close to my heart. I still think some rich land owner owned all the property and refused to be incorporated into an adjacent county...the books don't say that stuff. I remember one of the first times I drove into Moore County from Cumberland on Vass Rd. (NC 690) and thought how special I was to be on the only road in the world that crosses that border.
My first real memory of Moore County was when I worked at the 1999 US Open Golf Tournament at Pinehurst #2. I worked a concession stand, selling beer at age 16 while eating hot dogs and serving customers at the same time (in the food industry, those are both no-nos). But, once again, I remember thinking how special I was to be at the US Open breaking food industry no-nos. I saw Payne Stewart play his last tournament before his untimely plane crash (he won the tournament), as well as Tiger Woods and watched what was going to be Jack Nicklaus's last ever US Open putt...until he played again the next year.
On the bus to the US Open from Hoke County, the sign read, "Welcome to Moore County, home of the 1999 US Open." On the way back to Hoke County from Moore, the sign read, "Welcome to Hoke County, home of the NC Turkey Festival." I thought that was funny. I love NC.
Also, in high school, my physics teacher owned a gym in Aberdeen (in Moore County). He would give us extra credit to drive out to his gym and climb on his climbing wall. I did that a few times. Our high school marching band also played in the band competition at Union Pines High School.
Ok, back to the recent trip. We stopped at the House in the Horseshoe, which is a really old house. You should read the article. Welcome back from reading the article! Martin and I walked into the gift shop where you're supposed to begin the tour. No one was there! We wandered around for a while, and decided to walk up to the house. There's a little museum in an old tobacco-like barn, so we watched a reenactment of the stand-off. We walked out, and the dude on the lawn tractor drove up to us and asked if we wanted a tour. He was the only one working that day, and we were his first visitors all day. He gave us a personal tour, which was pretty cool, and joked around with him a lot. It's amazing to think people 200 years ago were just as ridiculous as people today. Mr. Alston, the Whig, didn't have many friends, and this Fanning guy, a Tory, went EVERYWHERE around NC causing trouble. Every time Alston turned around, there was Fanning giving him a hard time. They both escaped from things a lot. I asked the dude where the slave quarters went, since I like knowing about what REALLY happened on plantations. Some people think plantations are "great!" and especially down south, we like to name gated communities and gated towns like St. James Plantation with the name "plantation." I think that's kinda sick, because for the 5 people LOVING their plantation, there were 50 more people that loathed it (i.e., slaves). The dude said that they were all torn down at the beginning of the 1900s because it wasn't a historical building yet, and the person living there tore down everything that was dilapidated. Makes sense.
We grabbed a quick Geocache, and we were off.
If you didn't know already, Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Whispering Pines, Pinebluff nor any other "Pine" city created in order to lure people off the passing trains into a piney health resort, is the county seat. Carthage is! That's right--you learned about it in school. Carthage has been around for a long time, dominating the Mediterranean region...oh wait...that's in Tunisia. Wrong Carthage. Carthage, NC is a bit younger than that. Carthage is also know for its Buggy Festival.
We found the courthouses (yes, two here, right next to each other), and snapped some quick pictures. I'm wearing my 2008 Chapel Hill/Carrboro CROP Hunger Walk shirt with a Hawaiian shirt on it for fun. The courthouses seemed to fit the stereotype of pretty, older courthouse, with a newer, "modern 60s/70s feel" courthouse to replace it. If you go to the front of the new courthouse, there's a WWI memorial with canons around it, which I thought was interesting...it's not a Civil War monument! We're standing at the "back" of the old courthouse.
We started walking around to the front of the courthouse, and we noticed...SLOT CARS! Martin and I thought that was rad. So we walked inside. We were the only ones in here (noticing a trend?), and we spoke to the owner forever. He was a really great guy. He just wanted to have a place to race slot cars, and there wasn't anywhere around. Also, he didn't like how many slot car places charge $24 an hour and some you have to buy a car first. He only charges $5 PER DAY! It's just enough to pay the rent and utilities with a little to take home. He even encouraged us to play for free. So the three of us raced around the track for a good long time, even when our cars would fly off the track and slam into the track walls. Man, it was fun. I gave him 5 bucks anyway, because he was awesome. He said many of the local politicians, judges, etc., come in to play on their breaks sometimes. Richard Petty and other racers have even come in and signed autographs for people. He has pictures of these folks on the walls. When you're in Carthage, check out the slot car place! He told us to go get something to eat at Court Coffee next door.
So we did.
Meatball subs and salad for a 5 bucks. Awesome. We talked to the lady working in there for a good long while (and the really nice guy who commented on my UNC sweatshirt). We weren't the only ones in here this time--there were some bikers (motorcycles) from Fayetteville in there...I knew they weren't from there (Moore Countiers have a very strong accent), and the bikers eating sounded...like me! That was one of the few times I could actually pick out a "Fayetteville" accent. There isn't much of one, but you can hear it when you place someone born and bred in Fayetteville next to someone from Moore County. The lady working in the restaurant, Martin and I talked about John Edwards for a while, because she was from Robbins. John Edwards grew up in Robbins, NC, in Moore County. Now, he lives in Chapel Hill. Apparently, there's a sign in Robbins that mentions the fact that he grew up there, and his house is "off to the right and 3 houses down." We wanted to go see it, but Richmond County awaited.
posted by Charles @ 11:58 PM
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