Photo from Southern Appalachian Digital Collections –
Berlin Thomasson on a frozen Tuckasegee River in Bryson City
The river used to stay iced over six weeks at a time. It was so cold back then, and you could take a wagon and horses and go from here to Spruce Pine on the river without ever getting off. They used to go down after freight. And the boys at the Presbyterian School would build a fire out here at night and they would skate. That was one of their activities. And they would ride us on their shoulders, you know, and they’d push us on chairs, just a regular chair we’d turn upside down. You’d sit on the rails and they’d push us with the chair. And I couldn’t wait till I grew up so I could date these boys, you know. But, after I grew up, we didn’t have them. The school had burned down.
—Kay Wilkins – Mountain Voices written by Warren Moore
Although I’ve not gotten any snow, other than a few flurries, we have had some cold weather that makes you want to sit close to the woodstove and warm.
I recall a few winters when I was a girl Stamey Creek froze over and Paul and I thought we had a iceskating rink, albeit a very small one.
Pap told me about the confluence of Brasstown Creek and the Hiwassee River freezing solid when he was a boy. The area is called Paradise.
In March 1941 there was a big snow in this area. Right after the snow Pap said it turned off bitter cold with temperatures falling below zero for over a week.
Pap was about 4 years old and his Uncle Frank was about 14 years old. They were going to the corn-mill in Brasstown from their home on the Harshaw Farm. Frank was driving the wagon and when they got to islandford the river was completely froze over. Frank decided if he drove the wagon across the ice would break under the weight and they’d still be able to get to the other side.
The ice held. Horses skidded, chaos ensued, and Pap was left with the imprint of a memory he’d never forget.
Sometimes when I drive by Paradise I think of Pap watching Uncle Frank try to get the sliding horses under control. This winter I’ve been remembering the days of Paul and me sliding on the waters of Stamey Creek in our shoes pretending we were ice skaters. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve noticed the cold more or if its the knowledge that I’ll soon have two grandsons playing around the creek much like I did when I was a girl.
Last night’s video: New Year’s Day at Celebrating Appalachia 2024.
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We have a clipping from “The Tennessean” newspaper with my dad and my older brother walking across the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville in the 1930s. Now that’s COLD!! Just think how cold for how long it had to be in Nashville then for the Cumberland to freeze.
I’ve seen photos of our local river (Monongahela, in Northern WV) frozen over from long ago. It’s always hard for me to imagine, because I’ve never seen it even get a rime of ice, let alone freeze solid. I sure don’t want that sustained kind of cold, but I do think it would be neat to see.
Are you getting your snow now? I think it’s going to miss me.
Papaw-just rain so far 🙂 Maybe it will turn to snow 🙂
I’ve never stopped stogging round our creek on our farm. Frozen or flowling, I wear my galoshes and play, even at my age of 70. I firmly believe that we should all let that inner child out to play no matter our age.
Wow, so many people are saying snow may be coming to Brasstown this weekend Tipper. I can imagine how thrilled that would make you. I love your story above about the frozen lakes and ponds. I can remember a big snowstorm when I was a very young teenager, here in Bassett Va. That was shortly after my parents adopted me back in the early sixty’s. The snow was so deep. Fond memories they were.
Like you Miss Tipper, as children we would find a big frozen puddle, we were city kids, and skate around in our shoes and it was so much fun. The cold was felt, but we didn’t mind. We had so much fun. We played outdoors summer, winter, spring and fall. Weather was never a factor. Makes me giggle. By the way , I never learned to skate. HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!!!!!
Wonderful memories, Tipper. I love when you share stories from the past. As the song goes….precious memories, how they linger.
The closest thing to ice skating we did was taking a running start and sliding down the icy ridge road in our sneakers. We also sledded down the road like a rockets, and I seemed to always meet Monty, our mail carrier on the first curve. I’d bail out by rolling off the sled into the drifts beside the road, and my sled would crash into the undercarriage of his jeep. He thought for sure I was ‘killed dead’. I did have bruises from head to toe though.
I have wonderful memories of ice skating at our town’s beautiful pond. In northern Illinois, they would test the ice first to be sure it was safe and then put up a sign saying Ice Skating permitted. They had night lights and from a young girl thru high school I sure had fun. Crack the whip was great too and they had an old shed by the pond where you could go in and warm up and get some hot chocolate.
Tipper, Matt made your black eyed peas just like my Mother made them and that is what I fixed for New Year’s day. I can’t cook them in cast iron like you (as I can’t lift that cast iron pot) and Mother did but mine still turned out to be delicious for me. My oldest son always breaks up his cornbread like you did and puts his peas on top and then puts chopped onions on top of the peas. I keep mine separate but oh my goodness do I enjoy it.
Tipper, you may get that snow your so anxious to see this weekend:) I loved snow when I was young but in my 80’s now I prefer my streets, sidewalks, and church parking lots to be dry. I sure hope it misses us here in SC PA:)
Tipper–I’ll add a few tidbits of information on the photo, the man in it holding the half of a watermelon (to me, that’s as much a phenomenal thing as the Tuckaseigee being frozen over), the geographical details, and the photographer.
1. The setting for the photo is downtown Bryson City, immediately below the Everett Street Bridge. The buildings on the right above the bridge are still there, with the one closest to the river being Buford Smith’s barber shop.
2. The man holding the watermelon, Dr. Berlin C. Thomasson, was a local dentist. His wife, Lillian, taught three generations of students at Swain County High School. She taught my siblings and me as well as our father before us.
3. The photograph from the Kelly E. Bennett Collection at Western Carolina is one of thousands in a collection donated to the institution by Dennis Anthony, who married into the Bennett family. My brother, Don, with a modest amount of help from a bunch of old timers and me, has done a great deal of work in identifying the people and places in the images.
4. During my youth the river froze over in this location a couple of times, but never to the extent shown here. Daddy often talked about a Model-T driving across the river during his younger years somewhere in this area.
Jim, do you know the year the photograph was taken?
I’ve spent time in Bryson City, usually staying at the Fryemont Inn; but never in deep Winter. From my observations of the speed of flow in the area of the photo, it must have been quite cold for quite a long time for it to freeze to that depth of ice.
What great memories of frozen creeks, rivers and ponds. I never lived close enough to bodies of water growing up to see any frozen. Even if I had, I probably would’ve been to scared to get on the ice for fear of it breaking and me going under. All I can say is Pap’s Uncle must have been an optimist or he would never had tried to take that wagon over the frozen river. Pap must have been very brave to go along with him.
Richmond, Virginia had a bad snowstorm and record cold temperatures in January, 1941. Mama talked about it. She was 18 at the time. I’ve seen pictures of from the newspaper archives.
Alas, my skin is thinner than when I was a boy. Then I was one who didn’t know what cold was; just say it didn’t exist and it couldn’t hurt you. It is way easier to freeze now. There are things I need to do in the yard but it is all too easy to talk myself out of it. Below zero for a week sounds like the makings of one crisis after another now.
When I lived in Michigan the lakes froze over most of the winter. I saw my first ice fishermen up there. As much as I love fishing, I would never try some of the things those fishermen did. Just watching them made me nervous. I would be happy if it didn’t get cold enough to freeze my dog’s drinking water this winter. Keeping an eye on the weekend snow that could be headed your way!
The name of the algae that causes the pink snow is Chlamydomonas nivalis (C. nivalis) . Now let me hear you pronounce it.
I agree with papaw, if that is the river running through Bryson City by the tourist railroad, I don’t see how it could freeze. The river was flowing way to fast to freeze the few times times I saw it when I brought my kids to ride the railroad. I have saw a picture of the Amish cutting blocks of ice out of a river I guess in Ohio.
I have got to get started and see if I can get these old knees to “stogy” on this 24 degree morning.
We did not have a nearby river but our neighbor had a pond. I think the neighborhood boys would go there when it froze but I don’t remember ever going their myself.
We had big snows though and the sledding was so much fun.
I too, enjoyed seeing Matt casting a longing glance at Katie’s plate! So funny.
I have never seen a frozen lake. I think I would be too scared to walk on it. When I was younger I would have. But never with horses. When it rains a lot, our little 1 1/2 acres gets a stream on 3 sides. Parts of it get a little frozen. I imagine what comes out at night to drink. When I got up this morning everything looked white. It was just some frost. I’m like you Tipper, waiting for that snow. I mostly grew up by the beach. But the last 15 years off and on with heavy snow. Here in NE Arkansas we get a few days of snow. Not like the mountains in California. I really enjoy drinking my morning coffee and reading your morning stories. Wishing you and all your family health and happiness.
Tipper your stories of those cold winters we used to have stirred up some great memories. We didn’t have any type of boots when we were growing up. Momma saved “bread bags” those plastic bags that sliced bread came in from the store. When it snowed she would put those bags over our shoes and stuffed our breeches legs down in the bags. She would tie the top of the bag with twine, and off we’d go. The make do bread bag boots weren’t warm, but did keep our feet dry! Great times!
Tipper, if I’m not mistaken it’s supposed to start snowing this very night in Knoxville and by Saturday a real snow storm is headed right your way!!! It’s going from Richmond across Kentucky and down into NC where you are so get groceries ready and be prepared to sit by a cozy fire with your sweetie and a hot cocoa! Once I played ice skater and had to go to the ER to close my head. I was about 3 or so I guess, and never spun around like that again! My grandmother lost her eldest son in New River where he drowned in a whirlpool that sucked him under. Sailors had been swimming across the way and they tried to save him to no avail. In all my life water has scared me and I highly respect its power. I almost drowned in Chesapeake Bay playing in undertow. I started out quite a ways from where I ended up beat by shells and sand… I had a friend who’s mother was laying in the sun in Portsmouth, VA and her baby quietly fell in the water and she never heard a thing… just always keep a close eye on babies, children, drinkers of libation, daredevils and water. I hope and pray you all are safe and careful and will keep this prayer for you all my days… you are loved, cared for and respected more than you realize, lady bug, and you have a place in my heart like a sister and indeed in all these BP&A hearts who hang on your words… btw 50 NEVER LOOKED BETTER SISTER than on you! Yours is a lovely and flawless complexion!
In the picture the river above the bridge appears to be free flowing. The river below the bridge is relatively calm which allows a layer of water to freeze at the top and to build every day that the air temperature stays above freezing. The river continues to flow under that layer of ice. If the picture was taken where I think it is and if the camera was turned 180º, I’d bet the water would be flowing again.
I don’t think I have ever seen a frozen river. What I have seen are, as Kay Wilkins puts it, streams that were “iced over”. I am fairly confident that those gentlemen who are out walking on the Tuckasegee know the exact depth of the water underneath the ice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfHxY9Xrh90
I just love hearing your stories. I remember back in my 20’s that I went on vacation to your neck of the woods. It was the first vacation I ever had. We grew up poor and never took family vacations. I believe I traveled around where ya’ll live and I have some precious memories of that time.
I truly love to hear about the “good ol days” and all the adventures you and your family had.
I remember when I was really young (early 1960s) the Ohio River freezing over near our home in the western tip of Kentucky, across the border from Illinois. We all rode over there to see it. We had a shallow pond, from the days when there were a few farm animals on the land our house was on, and it would freeze solid once in a while. Daddy brought out a lightweight wooden rocking chair and we’d push each other across the pond.
Elena, I have to admit I am surprised to hear that the Ohio froze over as recently as the 1960s. I thought the warming climate had ended that. My family has been in western Kentucky (Livingston, Caldwell, and Crittenden counties mostly) since 1805. My dad, born in 1919, walked across the iced-over Ohio between Ky and Illinois when he was in high school. It is a very wide river in most places – so wide that several teenage boys who took the challenge to swim across it over the years have drowned. The place Daddy walked across was just upstream from where a large group of Cherokees on their way from N.C. to Oklahoma (Trail of Tears) spent part of the winter on a farm owned by my gggg-grandfather because they could not cross the iced-over Ohio. I guess walking that many people over the ice was too risky and there was way too much ice to get boats across. I have never figured out why they would need to cross the river into Illinois to go from North Carolina to Oklahoma. I attempted to ice skate on the frozen over Illinois River when I was in high school, but I was too scared to go far enough from the bank to get on the smooth ice and the ice near the banks is very bumpy. My ankles told me to stick to roller skating. ☺️
Still more memories that make us think of our days gone by. We do have a lot of them and pass them on to our children and encourage them to pass them on to theirs. I guess I have missed Granny’s latest tests and how she is doing but will still be praying for her and good news to come. Stay warm and enjoy that wood stove. I can just imagine that orange cake and the wonderful flavor. Matt does so love it. God Bless.
oh my gosh, the zero degree day (s) we had last year were awful. I just can’t imagine it freezing water.
Oh my, aren’t memories wonderful! I cherish all the memories that are sparked as I travel each day. Your skating on the creek reminds me of my twin sister and I ice skating; in our shoes. on the drainage ditch in front of our house! We would take an old broom with us, clear the snow and slide away! What fun! I enjoyed your New Year day video, it sure was fun watching Matt eyeing Katie’s pull apart bread. You had a good supper, made me hungry as I was watching about 6:30 after getting off work. God bless you and yours. ❤❤
I grew up with woods and a wide creek in my backyard. It’s the place where my love of water and forests and the place where my imagination was born. To this day, I’d rather be in the woods and walking creeks more than anywhere else in the world.
I have never known or heard anyone of the older generations talk about the rivers or “farm pond” lakes around here (Greenville County, SC) having ice on them thick enough to walk or skate on. I have seen thin ice on the ponds but none on the rivers. The creek on my property will sometimes have ice along the edges and ice sickles at the waterfall. This has probably happen at some point and time of the past in the mountains of Oconee and Pickens counties.
I read of this yesterday, and thought of Tipper and also to ask our western state members about it. It was an article about pink or watermelon snow. It is from algae in the snow. I will look back and write the name of the algae. The only colored snow I have ever known of was yellow, most often the curtesy of young boys and younger men. Be sure to never use it for snow ice cream.
I must admit as much as I loved the ice and pretending to skate when I was young I was scared to death of falling through.
I cannot imagine trying to cross with horses. I know there are parts of the world that drive big rigs on the ice, but I would never be able to muster up the nerve.
Thanks for sharing!
God bless all y’all!