1960s
Construction of the north shore road still had not commenced by September 1960 when North Carolina Governor Luther H. Hodges wrote to Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton. Citing arguments on both sides he concluded that the road would do no harm to wilderness areas in the park but would benefit Swain County. Governor Hodges stressed the point that the Department of the Interior should stand behind the contractual agreement to build the road.
Once again a response from Washington announced the road would be constructed. Seaton advised that he had "instructed the service to program an additional 30 miles to give motorists a route through the park's southern portion", a route generally referred to as the Deal's Gap to Bryson City road at a proposed cost of $16 million. Once again nothing was done.
In April 1962 the next North Carolina Governor James Terry Sanford disclosed that he had "strongly urged" the U.S. Department of the Interior to fulfill an agreement made in 1943 to build a road on the north shore of Fontana Lake. The long-standing dispute between Swain county and the Park Service had recently heightened when part of the road under construction came to a standstill with difficulties of crumbling rock in the subsoil.
In the 1960s another road was proposed through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This "transmountain highway", connecting Townsend, Tennessee to Bryson City, North Carolina would help to alleviate the heavy traffic on US 441 through the park. Conservationists roared at the idea saying this would be disastrous to the last surviving wilderness area in the east. Many suggested improving the existing roads including "the 12 miles of twisting road" US 129 at Deals Gap. Also suggested was extending the Blue Ridge Parkway from Cherokee to Bryson City.
Citizen Times Staff Writer John Parris wrote a glowing article on Graham County and Fontana in the June 24, 1962 issue of the Asheville Citizen-Times Newspaper. He describes the area:
Here is a land of rugged peaks and deep forests, of cold, quick streams and of mountain-rimmed lakes, of hidden, cloud-hung coves and of eternal wilderness.
It is a land where you can meet nature face to face, fill your eyes with grand and lonely scenery, hook a fourteen-pound trout, and pit your stamina and trigger-finger against a Russian wild boar or a native black bear.
Graham - all 289 square miles of her - persists as the pioneers' preserve and as North Carolina's last frontier.
Eighty-five percent of her land area is forest, some of it virgin wilderness. The Nantahala National Forest embraces her within its boundaries.
She is a hunter's and fisherman's paradise.
Her forests harbor bear and boar and deer, quail and grouse and wild turkey.
Her lakes and streams teem with bass and trout, bream, crappie and wall-eye pike.
She is the home to the Cherokee Indians.
Her Fontana Dam, 480 feet high, is the highest in all Eastern America and creates the largest of the TVA lakes - 30 miles long and 10,670 acres.
Her Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, a 3,800 acre tract of Appalachian hardwoods, is one of the most impressive remnants of our nation's virgin forests.
The Appalachian Trail, the fames hiker's patch from Maine to Georgia, extends the breadth of the county.
She was the last area in the state to be entered by white settlers and she has the smallest farm acreage of any North Carolina county.
Her Tatham Gap Road, leading from Robbinsville out across the Snowbirds to Andrews, is a historic dirt track built by Gen. Winfield Scott in 1838. Over it he started the Cherokee on the long and bitter Trail of Tears to an alien land beyond the Mississippi.
Nearby is nationally known Fontana Village, the state's largest resort. It has accommodations for more than 1,200 guests. Its recreational program is unmatched in North Carolina, ranging from an arts and crafts school to fishing, from square dancing to floating barbeques, from trail riding to hiking.
.... Tapoco Lodge is near the Cheoah Dam.
On the shore of the lake is the new Thunderbird Mountain Club and Lake-in-the-Sky Lodge.
Nearby, in the National Forest area, are two small club-like resorts - Snowbird Mountain Lodge, open only during the summer, and Blue Boar Lodge, open summer and winter.
This is a land where the days are warm with sun and the nights cool in summer. It's not unusual to have a log fire on a summer night, especially if you're back in the Snowbirds.
This is also a land of hospitable people.
In 1963 a proposal by the East Tennessee Automobile Club was made to the State Highway Commissioner David Pack to have US 129 continue north of Knoxville over the State 33 Highway to the Cumberland National Historic Park at Cumberland Gap. This would connect the two National Parks; the Great Smoky Mountains and Cumberland National Parks with one designated highway. The suggestion was never adopted due to State 33 failure to meet qualifying standards for a US highway.
On Friday August 19, 1966, more than three inches of rain was recorded at Fontana Dam. Flooding wiped-out a large section of US129 near NC28 when the normally docile waterfall at Aiken Branch became a roaring river. Traffic to and from Graham County was diverted to NC28.
On Friday August 19, 1966, more than three inches of rain was recorded at Fontana Dam. The heavy rains washed out a large section of US 129 near Tapoco.
A winter storm in late February of 1967 deposited as much as 12 inches of snow in areas of western North Carolina. In addition to many power outages, state highway engineers advised travelers to use chains on US 441 through the Smoky Mountains and also at Deal's Gap into Tennessee.
A half page advertisement in the travel section of the Boston Globe on April 27, 1969, offered many "Amazing America Vacations." One of the independent vacations which included transportation by Greyhound, hotels and sightseeing was to the Smoky Mountains for a seven day stay priced at $154.75 (twin rate includes taxes). Among the tours were Fontana Lake and Dam, Clingman's Dome, and Deals Gap.
Another drug bust took place at Deals Gap on January 20, 1970 when Zane Plemmons, 36, was arrested for possession of 12.5 ounces of marijuana. An informant made purchases which were analyzed by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).