We asked the previous land owner about the strange series of walls heading down the hill toward the creek, and the stone walls along one side of the creek. He said that they were build by German POWs after WWII. He told us that there was some sort of wetland and farmland preservation organization that used POWs as laborers. He couldn't recall the name of the organization. Anyone ever heard of it?
His grandfather used to tell him stories about when they came out here. They not only build the walls, but were responsible for terracing the land, as well. Maybe that is the reason for the unusual soil. Maybe they really did haul it in in order to build the terraces.
Has anyone ever heard of such a program? I tried to Google various things, and found quite a bit about POWs building walls and terracing. But I never found a name of an organization, or any work being done in Lexington, NC. Please help!
4 comments:
How very interesting! Here is a link to a cashed google search...
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:X__N_ESn1ScJ:ncmuseumofhistory.org/edu/ed_md_tw_wwII2.html+german+prisoners+north+carolina&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
down in the 'suggested reading' is something that might be worth looking into
Hey girl! You may want to go to the Lex library genelogy department and research the last name of the owner and/or grandpa. The "family books" that are there usually list quite a bit of information like past occupations, how the land was used, etc. Just a thought for those rainy days!!
Thanks guys! Elizabeth, that was very interesting to read. Sherlyn, that is a wonderful idea. I might do that one day when the girls go to work with Darrell.
Try to find someone in the area (that grew up there) in the 80 year old time frame. You may actually find someone that has eyewitness accounts of what it was used for.
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