The Beginning of the Eno River Park
Tom Ellis worked tirelessly his whole life long in service of North Carolina’s forests and State Parks. He is widely known for his formative influence and benevolent effect upon our state park system, and locally as a key player, and working man’s hero, in the establishment of the Eno River State Park.
Tom got his start back in the 1930s working in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and the U.S. Forest Service. Native to Bladen County and the Uwharrie Mountains, Tom began his work with North Carolina State Parks in 1942 as a ranger in Bladen Lakes State Forest. Tom served as superintendent of Morrow coming to symbolize a state park system revered nation-wide for its preservation of true natural beauty, and not simply the unwanted remainders of developers, and other big business interests.
In 2005, in recognition of his service and dedication, Tom was presented with North Carolina’s highest award, The Order of the Longleaf Pine. Tom was a man of high ethical standards, deep faith, and devotion. These qualities resounded throughout his life’s work.
Tom Ellis died December 30th at the age of 94.
Tom Ellis Interview, April 2002, with Wayne Poole and David Cook — Part 1
Dave Cook: Could you talk a little bit on how the Eno River State Park was pieced together. It just seemed like there were a lot of different land owners, like Grover Cleveland Shaw, different people. Where did the concept came from? Maybe we could start there.
Tom Ellis: Okay. To start with the idea, the concept was to establish the State Park to stop the reservoir. We felt like if the State Park was established that the reservoir would not be built. And the way that got started was Margaret Nygard and Holger would go to these board meetings, and they went to several board meetings and expressed the interest and concern about the Eno River being dammed for a water supply for Durham.
Wayne Poole: Were these the Durham City board meetings?
Tom: No, these were C & D Board meetings—Conservation and Development Board meetings. They would go to these meetings. They almost got to be regular visitors to our board meetings. They would go when we were in Winston-Salem or in Rocky Mount or wherever, and they were championing that cause. Well, it felt like if there was a state park established there that that would stop the reservoir. We felt like that the State should not get into the fight with the city about land and who could condemn this or who could condemn that, so we kindly just went slow about it. But anyway, there was a resolution passed at a board meeting that we establish a state park at the Eno River. If I remember correctly it was at Rocky Mount where that resolution was passed through the encouragement of Holger and Margaret. That’s the very birth of it, I guess, when that resolution was passed.
Dave: Was that site specific? When that resolution was passed was there actually a piece of land, or an area of land, that was being kept in mind?
Tom: No. Just the Eno River. There was no specific area or piece of land, which is kind of unusual because like at Raven Rock State Park you’d have Raven Rock, at Pilot Mountain you’d have Pilot Mountain. But it was just the Eno River. It was the concept, and the concept was that really and truly there was not going got be a state park as such, but that it was going to preserve a river. At that time we had never done this, and we felt like it was a new concept. That was really the original idea of it, to preserve the Eno River.
Dave: I am remembering, at that time, nationally and state wide, there was a real consciousness being raised about rivers; I remember there was a whole series of books that came out on rivers in America, the French Broad included. They had a whole book on the French Broad; they had one on the Ohio. And I just remember that the state, at that time, was really beginning to talk up rivers. That’s my memory of it.
Tom: You’re exactly right.
Dave: I don’t know if it was a national concept or a state concept?
Tom: There was certainly a national concept, and I think certainly Holger and Margaret intensified it in our state, because at that time we had never assumed the responsibilities of State Parks would be to preserve rivers as such. This was an idea that was new to us, just to have a river preserve, a wild and scenic river.
Dave: That was the phrase wasn’t it? That’s what I remember.
Tom: Yes, that was the phrase, “Wild and Scenic River”. And it was a national trend at that time and of course, fortunately, we had Margaret and Holger to be concerned about the Eno River, and that’s how it came about. Of course, as a result of that we have the New River now, and the river down in Lumberton, the Black River.
Dave: I can just imagine that: Margaret and Holger, when they left that meeting, they must have been fired up.
Tom: Oh, they were! They were, and I don’t know how many meetings they had gone to, because they had a general interest in state parks. I remember seeing them at Winston-Salem and Greensboro, and other meetings we’d go to. They were almost just like the board members there.
Dave: From your recollection, what did Margaret and Holger do with that? In a way it seems like that empowered them to go look, to go talk.
Tom: That’s right. It gave them the blessing to say, “Okay, the State is receptive to having a natural river made out of the Eno River.” That gave them the blessing to go out and do this kind of thing. That’s all we had, just that one little resolution. We didn’t have any money. Tom Hamilton was chairman of the State Parks Committee at that time so we said, “We don’t have any money but the Nature Conservancy has an interest in helping us establish the scenic river. They have never had a project with state parks in North Carolina and they want to. They are very interested in helping us, and all we have to do is get your blessing to do this because we’ll have to pay them back some day, or they’ll give it to us, or whatever.” But anyway, we had to have his blessing, so he said, “Okay, go ahead and do it.” We had the man from Atlanta come down and we talked to him about it, and he said, “Yes, we will help you.”
Dave: This is the Nature Conservancy?
Tom: The Nature Conservancy. So then, there was no land available at the Eno River because of the City. They had identified [the land] over thirty years prior to that, “This is an area in which we are going to have a reservoir someday as a water supply for the City of Durham.” They had identified that in long range planning, and it was done right. It identified all those lands that were going to be used for the reservoir. Well, that put us in a little bit of an awkward position because we didn’t want to get into a fuss with the City. But anyway, at that time Coleman Lumber Company had a piece of land between Highway 70 and I-85, Red Hill, I believed they called it, and it was available. We kindly felt like we could buy that and it would plant our feet on the ground; it would give us a commitment, really and truly. To make a long story short we bought the land. The Nature Conservancy came down and looked at it and agreed to buy it for us. I had a lot of concerns about it and a lot of worry about it because I felt like, really and truly, we shouldn’t be buying any land that wasn’t contiguous to the river. But Tom Hamilton was chairman of the State Parks committee and he felt like we should go ahead and do this. So we went ahead and bought the Red Hill land, or Red Mountain, whatever they call it, and that established us as interested in this area. Well then, along about that time Dr. and Mrs. Bernheim contacted me and said they had some land on the river that they would like give us for the state park.
Dave: Did their land connect to the Red Hill land?
Tom: No, not whatsoever. Highway 70 was between their land and the Red Hill land. And their land was contiguous to the river! They wanted to give us, I forget how many acres of land, seems like it was three or four hundred acres, that was contiguous to the river. So I went—they lived not very far from here—and talked to them and spread out the maps and everything and they talked with us about the land and said they wanted to give it to us for the state park. So I went to talk to Harding Hughes [Durham City Manager], and I told him, “We’ve been offered some land and I wanted to come talk to you.” And he said, “I can’t believe you would come talk to me, because you want the land and we want the land.” And I said I didn’t want to get to a state of trouble with the City or the state, or visa versa. He said, “Yes, we have that land and we identified it over 30 years ago.”
Dave: The Bernheim land?
Tom: The Bernheim land, all the land, that whole area, “We’ve identified over thirty years ago.” And he showed me the master plan, and they had done their homework good. They had long range planning. It was good. And Mr. Browning was the water man at the time, so we talked with him about it. I was convinced they had done real long-range planning, so I said to Mr. Bernheim, “Well, we can’t accept [the land]. I’d love to but we can’t accept it because we cannot get the state parks in position of fighting with the City, because we wouldn’t have a chance. To get the land you’d have to condemn it and the State is not going to condemn land the City already had, and even if we tried, the court would not support us because their long-range planning has identified the land as a needed water-supply. So we wouldn’t have a chance.”
Dave: I am sure Holger and Margaret had been talking with the Bernheims.
Tom: I’m sure they had. I told Harding Hughes, “We will not accept the land.” And then I went back and told Mr. Bernheim, and Mollie, that I didn’t think it would be right to accept the land because two public agencies just should not get at each other’s throats. But I said, “Why don’t you give the land to the Nature Conservancy, because if we accepted the land it would not be fair to you unless we were going to defend it with everything we got, and I said we couldn’t do that. The attorney general would be our person to help do that and he could not, and would not do that.” I distinctly remember going to talk with Dr. and Mollie Bernheim down here at their house and they offered it outright because they felt like if the state got it the state would stand up and say, “No, we’re not going to have that land flooded.” But I knew that it wasn’t going to work that way, because two public agencies weren’t going to get into that. So I said, “Why don’t you give it. Let me get you in touch with the Nature Conservancy, and give it to them, and they will have no problem with, you know, taking our position with the City.” So that’s how we got the first piece of land on the Eno River. Doctor Bernheim gave it to the Nature Conservancy. They gave it to the Nature Conservancy with the understanding that they would give it to state parks. That was how we got the first piece of land on the Eno River. It seems like it was 450 acres or something. Then we had the land on the Eno River and we had the Red Hill. And Pearson Stewart, he said, “Well, that’s not bad because really and truly you need to connect the Red Hill with the Eno River anyway,” which would have been a great idea but Highway 70 separated it.
So as time went on, and we once got some land established on the river, and then some more land came along, then we decided to sell Red Hill. We sold that and used the money to buy land contiguous to the river.
Dave: Now at this point it seems like the Nature Conservancy has the land, but it seems like they are still on a collision course with the City?
Tom: Oh yeah.
Dave: The City still has a thirty year plan, and momentum is building behind this idea.
Tom: Oh yeah. I got ahead of myself there. Now we didn’t sell the land, the Red Hill, until after all this was worked out, after we realized that the City backed off. But that’s how we got the first piece of land—then as time went on we got other pieces.
Dave: I don’t want to get too far ahead, but the Bernheims had given the land to the Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy now holds it. There is momentum building for the preservation of the river. Some other people are now inspired by what the Bernheims have done? Is that what happened?
Tom: Yeah. None of them were as generous as the Bernheims, but they were willing for their land to be acquired or used for a state park as opposed to being under water, for the reservoir.
Dave: So is the State actually putting money into buying this land?
Tom: No, the first money the state put into buying the land was after the pretty much accomplished fact, that we were going to have a park. Then the first money we used was the money got for selling Red Hill.
Dave: So the people who are giving this land because they feel moved by what the Bernheims had done, and they see the concept developing—is this Margaret and Holger talking to them and getting them involved? Putting it into a land trust? What’s the form, or are there different forms? How are people buying into this concept? I mean, just because, you know, say you’ve got some land, not many people are going to give their land? They have to feel something good about this connection.
Tom: Right. Some people did give land but a lot of people didn’t give land. They, of course, felt like the City was going to condemn their land and take their land and have it flooded for a water supply. And they didn’t like that idea, of course. But then when the threat of the reservoir was gone they settled back down and said, “This is my property.” A lot of people were happy their property had been saved. It was saved because the pressure was there to preserve the river. Quite a conflict there: because people who had property, Mr. Barber was one of them, his land was probably going to be flooded too, once the reservoir was stopped they kindly-like said, “Stay off of my land.” So we had to work through that.
Dave: There’s two different groups then.
Tom: Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Dave: Were the land prices higher after the reservoir had been stopped, did the land prices go back up again?
Tom: Oh yeah, yeah.
Dave: So these people who had given land or sold their land had gotten less. Did others sell it to the Nature Conservancy at that point? People who had land which was going to get flooded, who didn’t just want to see it condemned by the City, they might sell their land for a low price to somebody.
Tom: You would think so but it didn’t work that way, not really and truly. Once the threat of the reservoir was gone they settled back down. “This is my land now and my land joins the river and I don’t want to sell it, and I am certainly not interested in giving it. I don’t want to sell.”
Dave: Where do we go from there?
Tom: Well, we felt like at that time, you know the state has the power of eminent domain, and once we got it established as a state agency and a state park, that you could have that power. But we felt like the worst thing we could ever do was to condemn land. We tried to work with people and get people to sell as much as they could, or would, and get a little piece here and get a little piece there, and so that’s why putting by all this land was so difficult, because we didn’t exercise, and wouldn’t exercise, the power of eminent domain. That’s why Mr. Shaw’s piece was so significant, because it was a hundred and fifty acres, I believe, that we got from him. I can’t remember where the next land came from but it came slow and one of the biggest pieces we got was Mr. Shaw’s. That was quite a break through.
Next Edition: Grover Cleveland Shaw and the Beginning of a State Park…