Tom Dooley tour # 3 Traditional Cache
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Easy park and grab. Use stealth as there will be muggles driving by. This marks an area frequented by Tom Dula, Laura Foster and Ann Melton.
When Laura Foster, a young and attrative woman, disappeared from her home in Happy Valley in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolilna in the spring of 1866, residents of the area assumed that Tom Dula (pronounced Dooley in the hill country), a young Civil War veteran had something to do with it. He was known to be Laura's lover, as well as the lover of many other young women in the area. Months before Laura's body was found, stabbed through the heart in a shallow grave near the Yadkin River, Dula was seized and held in jail. His trial unveiled a sordid story of sexual immorality, resentment, jealousy and bitterness, and Dula was convicted and hanged before a huge crownd in Statesville, an event that drew national attention. The story lived on with time becoming entwined with myth and legend, because it inspired a ballad that was sung throughout the mountains. Nearly a century after the murder that inspired it, that ballad became a major national hit for a popular folksinging group called the kingston Trio.
Calvin J. Cowles moved from Hamptonville in 1846 and established a store at the mouth of Elk Creek.Elkville Post Office was also established at Cowles Store, which remained the name of the establishment after calvin Cowles moved to Wilkesboro in 1858.
The Store and Post Office were the heart of the Elkville community. The store was the gathering place for all of the Elk Creek and stony Fork Communities and for those living up and down the Yadkin River for miles in both directions. Almost everything that came through that part of the county in the way of shows ad entertainment played at Elkville. It was a noted place and muster ground for the militia . During political campaigns great crowds came to hear candidates speak. A justice of the Peace held court at Cowles Store, and deputy sheriffs were dispatched from this rural "Courthouse". as were Jack Adkins and Ben Ferguson, who were sent into tennessee after Tom Dula.
Today, Eller's store, a combination sercvice station-grocery store, is the local gathering place, near where cowles Store once stood, but the Post Office has moved two miles down river to ferguson. If you are not in a hurry. and it is a rainy day, local men of all ages will be at the store to talk to you about the history and folklore of Happy Balley.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
gbb rnfl
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