Blue Ridge Country July/August 2022 - 48

COURTESY OF STEVE POPE
COURTESY OF STEVE POPE
HISTORY, CLOCKWISE:
Tucked into a bend of the French Broad River, the town of Horse Shoe has
always been a sleepy-eyed hamlet.
Locals traded eggs for dry goods at the Davenport General Store.
No one was prepared for the deluge of 1916, especially not the residents of
Horse Shoe.
Back in the 1800s, Andy and Dave Davenport ran the cornerstone of Horse
Shoe, Davenport General Store.
In the late 1800s, Horse Shoe residents and visitors could hitch a ride on the
Mountain Lily, a 90-foot-long steamboat on the French Broad.
COURTESY OF D.H. RAMSEY LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE.
grew up in Horse Shoe, a sleepyeyed
North Carolina hamlet tucked
into a loose elbow of the French
Broad. My hometown's name has
nothing to do with equines and
everything to do with the river. Up
near Etowah, the ancient waterway
veers east and then northwest, making
what my people would say is a " damn
near perfect " horseshoe.
I
Despite being our community's namesake,
I remember the river being feared
more than she was loved. As a kid, I would
go down with my daddy to the hardware
store, where we bought bait and talked to a
parrot perched near the cash register. One
day I overheard a barrel-chested farmer
saying a bright-eyed river monster had
bit off his pinky toe last summer while he
was swimming. That monster slapped her
tail on the chocolate milk-colored water,
grinned a mouthful of razor blades and
then disappeared into a dark eddy.
" I ain't never going back in that dirty
river, " he said, shaking his head real slow.
" No way in hell. "
I didn't get a good look at that man's
48 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
feet, so I can't say for sure whether his
story was true or some kind of tall tale
crafted to help keep a girl out of a dirty
river. But I will say that my neighbors
had good reason to avoid the water. You
see, more than a century ago, two tropical
storms drenched North Carolina's
mountains. Rain fell hard and fast. Timid
brooks turned into seething streams and
the mild-mannered French Broad into a
hot-tempered tyrant.
Like most Horse Shoe residents, Dave
and Andy Davenport weren't ready for
the deluge. A few decades prior, the
brothers had opened Davenport General
Store, a successful two-story shop where
townies could swap eggs for dry beans
and crackers.
The men owed their prosperity to the
railroad, which was chartered in 1895 and
brought guests to the mountains from
South Carolina cities like Charleston and
Anderson. Seeking cool reprieve during
summertime, guests would stay at the Maplehurst
Hotel-also owned by the Davenports-and
spend days picnicking by the
French Broad. Some out-of-towners even
got lucky enough to hitch a ride on the
Mountain Lily, a 90-foot-long steamboat
docked in Horse Shoe.
But in July 1916, everything changed.
After record-breaking rainfall, the river
crested at 21 feet. Chaotic and foaming,
the dame devoured homes, the railway
and the general store. The total number
of human casualties in Horse Shoe is unknown
but it's estimated that at least 80
people were killed in Western North Carolina
at large.
Though the Davenports would rebuild,
many wouldn't. Instead, they would
move to higher ground, scorning the river
for taking what little they had. Neglect
soon gave way to misuse. What was once
pristine water became a slurry of sewage,
trash, chemical runoff and landfill seepage.
Alas, the French Broad emerged as an
ex-lover of sorts-a bitter but beautiful reminder
of what once was.
But in 1955 a woman by the name of
Wilma Dykeman wanted to make amends.
Raised further north in the Beaverdam
community of Buncombe County, Dykeman
had watched the French Broad turn

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Blue Ridge Country July/August 2022

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