Fifteen men and women who are part of a nationwide environmental advocacy group recently came to Western North Carolina to voice their opposition to the North Shore Road.

“We wanted to come to the Southeast where we could be useful. I think the Smokies are gorgeous,” said Rose Chilcoat, 47, program director of Great Old Broad for Wilderness. “The road is not a local issue; this is a national park and needs to be managed for the good of all of the people. Reality is rearing its ugly head. Times have changed. Maybe if the road had been built back then ....”

The Great Old Broads for Wilderness, based in Durango, Colo., is a national, grassroots organization with more than 3,000 female and male members of all ages in every state who make their voices heard to protect America’s wilderness. The group brought members from Montana, Colorado, Washington State, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and Hendersonville to “broadwalk” the North Shore Road.

The group camped in Deep Creek outside of Bryson City and spent the weekend learning about the history and alternatives of the North Shore Road issue. The Old Broads came to the Smokies because one of its missions is to keep roads out of roadless places. Since the north shore of Fontana Lake in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the largest unbroken tract of mountain land in the eastern U.S., the Broads are concerned about the harm that a road might bring to this area.

The proposed road would follow the northern shore of Fontana Lake for 35 miles from the existing tunnel to the vicinity of Fontana Dam. Until the 1940s, people living north of the current lake used N.C. 288, but that road was flooded when TVA constructed Fontana Dam. When the residents were forced off their land, the federal government promised to build a road on the North Shore after World War II. In the early 1960s, a small section of road was started from Bryson City but was stopped for environmental reasons. This section is known as the “Road to Nowhere.” The National Park Service is still accepting comment on its proposed alternatives for the road, and is expected to make a recommendation before the end of 2005 (visit www.northshoreroad.info/ to view the options).

The first day of the Smoky Mountains Broadwalk, the Broads — accompanied by Ted Snyder and other local environmentalists who are against construction of the road — took a boat to Hazel Creek and the old community of Proctor. Snyder, a lawyer who has been involved in the North Shore Road controversy since 1968, explained that “with more than 1,000 people in its heyday, Proctor was the largest settlement in the 44,000 acres that was taken by TVA for the dam. However, when the lumber company pulled out in 1928 after logging the whole area, many residents also left. Proctor became a farming community again.”

Ronni Egan, 59, executive director of the organization, said, “if a bunch of old women can walk into roadless areas, there is no good reason for anyone to need a machine to get there. However, wilderness should be for others even if I can’t go there anymore. It should be for my children and grandchildren.”

Mary Campbell drove from her farm in Montana to broadwalk in the Smokies and visit with her brother in Sylva.

“I’ve been a member for five years. This is my kind of group. In some enviro groups, there are huge ego issues. These women are past that.”

The Great Old Broads asked local experts on both sides of the North Shore Road issue to lead information sessions.

”No other environmental group would invite the opposition,” Chilcoat said. “Younger people might not be able to talk to the other side in a polite, rational, political manner. ”

Linda Hogue, chairperson of the North Shore Road Association, which supports building the road, gave her perspective:

“My family has ties to the Forney Creek area. Building the road is a moral and legal obligation. Our men went off to war and the women had to move out of their homes by themselves. They were told that they would be back in a year so they left a lot of things behind,” Hogue told the group.

Leonard Winchester, chairman of the Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County and a retired educator, has been advocating for a $52 million payment to Swain County instead of completing the road.

“Swain County is a poor county, with more than 33 percent of the people below the poverty line. We are looking out for our future. With the interest that this sum would bring, we could improve our infrastructure and our schools,” said Winchester. The settlement amount was arrived at by adding compound interest to the value of the road in 1940, the year Swain County assumed responsibility for the Forney Creek Road District bonds that financed the original road.

David Monteith, a Swain County commissioner who is also in favor of building the road, disagrees with Winchester: “I’m going to do what I can morally and legally to get the road,” Monteith told the Broads.

Lynda Doucette, a supervisory park ranger, said that “from 1970 until 2000, the park was against the road. Since 2000, when Congress appropriated $16 millions for further construction of the road, the park went back to not voicing an opinion.”

She encouraged the audience to give their input to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Planning Process on their preferred alternative. “All opinions are equal. People in Montana have just as much say as local people. But the decision will not be based purely on a popular vote.”

Claude Douthit, a lifelong resident of Bryson City, a historian, and a supporter of the cash settlement, said, “I am 78 years old and I want to have this issue settled in my lifetime.”

During their visit to Western North Carolina, the Broads had a choice of several hikes led by locals. Susan Doughty from Brentwood, Tenn., chose a strenuous hike on the AT that took her up to Shuckstack Tower where she saw the unbroken wilderness that would be impaired by the road. Then she hiked down the Lost Cove Trail and the Lake Shore Trail where rusty old cars from the 1940s still sit, one with a tree growing through its middle.

“I’m conflicted,” Doughty said. “I can understand both sides ... But I don’t want to see a road built either.”

To give input to the North Shore Road EIS Planning Process, go to http://www.northshoreroad.info.

(Danny Bernstein can be reached at danny@hikertohiker.org.)