https://www.facebook.com/danny.bernstein.73Do you know where this picture was taken?

On National Public Lands Day, Saturday September 22, 2018, Friends of DuPont Forest is planning its first DuPont Forest Festival to celebrate the adventure, wildness, and beauty of DuPont State Recreational Forest. A full day of guided tours is planned: hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding, educational lectures, and hands-on demonstrations.

One activity that intrigued me was “Optimizing Avenza Map App”, a map program on your mobile phone. For those who want real maps, there will be map and compass demonstrations¤

“I think of it as an outdoor conference that shows off DuPont Forest and teaches our communities about the importance of our public lands and their role in protecting them,” says Sara Landry, Executive Director of Friends of DuPont Forest.

The Friends group is looking for volunteers to help with logistics, since they expect a lot of visitors from all over the area and beyond. They’re also looking for business sponsors.

For questions about volunteering at the Forest Festival or about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Sara Landry at 828.713.2368 or [email protected].

You might find out where that photo was taken, as well.

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I’m taking a short break from blogging since I’m going away and not taking a laptop. You can follow me on Facebook or specifically on

https://www.facebook.com/danny.bernstein.73

We know that there were European settlers in what is now Dupont State Recreational Forest from the 1700s. Two cemeteries in the forest keep the remains of inhabitants. But it’s no surprise that Cherokees lived and passed through Dupont way before that.

The Cherokee left petroglyphs, pictures dug or scratched in the rock. Today, Dr. Keith Parker gave a lecture on petroglyphs in the classroom in Dupont Forest for Friends of Dupont members. Most of the members knew each other, and I may have come the furthest, all the way from Asheville.

According to Parker, petroglyphs are scratched in the rock and not painted. No one knows what the petroglyphs mean. The scratches can take on four fundamental symbols: circle, square, center and cross. In Dupont, circles seem to prevail.

Some believe that petroglyphs are a sign from outer space, but I just let that wash over me. The Cherokee connection seems more relevant.

Parker spent a lot of time talking about Judaculla Rock in Jackson County. That rock is quite elaborate. After years of abuse, Judaculla Rock is now protected. Parker gave us driving instructions on how to find it.

Then the group drove to the Corn Mill Shoal parking area, about a 10 to 15-minute drive from the Visitor Center. We hiked up Big Rock Trail, a rutted bike trail. I had hiked Big Rock Trail a few weeks ago. Though I had noticed the rocks, big rocks, I never paid attention to petroglyphs.

But to see a large group of petroglyphs, you had to get off the trail and unto a “Big Rock”. A short path to the right took us to a large expanse of rocks. And the group started looking down. It didn’t take a scientist to see these scratched circles; lots and lots of them.

The photo above makes it seem like it’s a black and white picture. But it’s not; that’s what the rock looks like. The twenty or so hikers spread out and called out their finds. It wasn’t that difficult to find your own petroglyphs as we traversed the rock.

It seems that the trail went right over these petroglyphs. But Friends of Dupont who knew about these Cherokee treasures asked for the trail to be moved. They were rightly concerned that the constant biking would wear away the petroglyphs. Finally, the Forest agreed.

Sometimes it just pays to get off the beaten path.

On Conservation Road in Dupont State Recreational Forest, on the way back, I take a side trip to Lake Julia. Camp Summit Rd. leads to Lake Julia, a lake built for Camp Summit, a summer camp (1969-1986). The girls were housed in the only building still standing here. The inside is filled with upended furniture. Maybe the NC Forest Service is using it for storage.

When I first walked to Lake Julia in 2001, this area had three buildings – the girls lodge, still standing, another house in the middle which was already deteriorating, and the palatial girls’ dining room. I don’t know when the middle house was taken down.

The first couple of times I went to Lake Julia, probably in 2001, you could still walk up the steps into the girls dining room. The developer, who owned this section of the Dupont land for a little while, had improved the building.

Rumors was it was going to be a club house for the upscale development. When I last peeked in, I saw a can of paint with a paintbrush on the floor. After the condemnation decision came out, I can picture the crew boss yelling,

“OK, guys. We lost the case. So, let’s get out of here.” And the painters put down their paintbrushes, get into their trucks, and leave Dupont.

I have searched and searched for the photo with the paint can but no luck. I took the photo before I switched over to digital photography. Though I kept all the photo albums, that picture never made it in the scrap books, I guess.

The Forest Service removed the girls dining room in 2013. A stone water fountain stands on the right, the only artifact still left from the girls dining room.

I eat my sandwich with my back to Lake Julia, facing into the void that was the heart of Camp Summit. Weeds have taken over the site. The building was such an icon to my understanding of Dupont State Forest that the area looks like a tooth is missing.

Things change. Soon bushes will grow into trees. Newcomers won’t even know a building was here.