1950s
The first complaint about the government failing to complete the road from Fontana Dam to Bryson City was made in November of 1950. T. D. Bryson, Jr., of Bryson City pointed out the failure to construct the promised road was a breach of the original agreement for the transfer of lands to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Nathan B. Drury, Director of the Department of the Interior advised that the obligations originally made were "contingent upon the appropriation of funds by the congress."
A traveler in 1953 commented on the road to Deals Gap. "We had come out of Knoxville, Tenn., over a fairly flat country, but now our road became a mountain road, twisting and turning in wonderful fashion as we climbed to Deal's Gap in the Smokies."
It wasn't until 1953 that construction began on a paved route from Johnson Gap to Fontana Village (present day NC 28 west of NC 143). Prior to then according to an article in the Asheville Citizen-Times "you can make the short cut now, if your car and your back are strong enough to stand the rough grading that plunges through the mountains west of Yellow Creek."
The 26 year-old driver of a gasoline truck was lucky to survive an accident that occurred just half a mile south of Deal's Gap on Wednesday November 16, 1955. The driver claimed a Nash auto crossed the center line forcing him off the road into an embankment and then plunged into Tapoco Lake where he swam to safety with only minor injuries.
The subject of building a north shore road from Bryson City to Fontana Dam once again appeared to have been settled in October of 1957 when Ed Hummel, superintendent of the Smoky Mountains National Park stated construction would begin in the spring of 1958. He estimated it would take 5 years to complete the 37.44 miles federal portion of the highway. Swain County had already completed construction of 6.8 miles of old NC 288 from Bryson City to the park boundary.
In 1958 a group of investors from south Florida purchased the 125 acre mountain on US129. This peninsula on Lake Santeetlah would become today's Town of Lake Santeetlah. Here is the interesting story SEE LINK AT RIGHT TO THE THUNDERBIRD STORY
