Driving on US-276 from Brevard toward Greenville, S.C is quite challenging to the novice mountain driver because the road is replete with sharp curves and an almost constant uphill climb. However, about eight miles south of Brevard, there is a large area of flat land. There are several real estate agencies there, plus an overlook for the double waterfalls called Connestee Falls. This area has an interesting background and one person who can relate the stories is Michael Hendricks of Brevard. The Hendricks family has lived in the Transylvania area for several generations. His grandfather had a small business there where patrons could ride ponies. "The poor ponies would make about four or five turns around the area and then wouldn't want to go any further," Hendricks recalled with a laugh. Michael was born at the Transylvania Community Hospital when it was housed in the present Brian Center building His family owned a large yellow wooden house on the property which now is the Brevard Post Office. Hendricks had three sisters: one is a real estate broker, one teaches Lamaze, and the other is deceased. He also has a daughter, Mary who works at Doc's restaurant, and four other children. Hendricks graduated from Brevard High School where he played football "Instead of going on to college, I signed up for the Marine Corps and didn't further my education, which disappointed my father a lot," Hendricks recalled. Hendricks fought in Vietnam and is now a disabled war veteran. "I was standing quite close to a mortar dump and we just got through putting about 12 mortars into that pit when they shot a mortar right into the pit. The explosion was so bad that I lost about 60% of my hearing and am still on medication at the V.A. for injuries I got," said Hendricks. When Hendricks was discharged from the Marines in 1968, he came back to Brevard. "If you had your uniform on, you just stood out and people were throwing coke bottles, cursing, and spitting on you; all over, every where. I went for a long time worrying about how the returning Vietnam vets were treated, but I'm not going to worry about it, any more We did some terrible things over there. War is an atrocity and I'm not for it, but I'm for the warriors. Thank God, we've got them," Hendricks said He couldn't find a job in Brevard upon his return from the military. So he took a job at Sea Pines in Florida as a salesman, selling lots in a new development Realtec was building. This company was owned by a Florida man called Stanley Whitcomb, who still has a house in Connestee Falls. Hendricks was part of a forty-man sales team when the company started developing Connestee Falls in 1971. However, he had been born in the area and had a lot of local knowledge. That's where the story of the large flat area on US-276 comes into the picture, as it was the staging area for the sales force and Hendricks is very familiar with what happened there. Hendricks walked around the area, pointing out various venues. "Before we moved in here, this was a big parking and "sparking" area. It was full of empty beer cans when we first took it over; which we cleaned up, of course. There was a beer garden on top of the nearby hill to the north in 1935-40. It is gone now, but the outhouse still stands there. Also, in the 70's there was a snack place up there run by a guy called Landreth Bagwell and later by a Galloway. Also, there was an old grist mill located at the falls, called Summey's Mill. "The county being dry at the time, there were whiskey stills in that area and we found about seven of them; that is, pieces and parts of them. We also found stones from log cabin fireplaces that had been built. Unfortunately, people starting taking the stones. Since we had about 4,000 acres, it was kind of tough to secure all of it," Hendricks related. That entire old parking lot was used by the sales department at the inception of Connestee Falls. They flew in prospective buyers from Florida and other areas every weekend. "There were times when we had 60 couples looking at the property for lots, and 55 of them would buy. We used to keep the parking lot well policed Every thing was carefully manicured and the food was the best. "We were constantly washing down the lot. One funny incident I remember was when one of our young guys got a five-gallon can of concentrated soap and started spreading it around the parking lot. I can still remember the glug-glug-glug sound as he walked along, emptying the can. He then tried to wash it down with a pressure hose. The more he washed it, the deeper the suds got until the suds were up over people's cars," Hendricks recalled with humor. They had quite a marketing effort as the program developed. At first, they used a trailer that looked like an interrogation room where they interviewed prospective buyers. The room just had a coke machine and they would bring coffee in for them. They later built a sales office up on the hill and several roundette buildings; one was used as a restaurant and others as housing for overnight guests. One of the main drawing cards was the presence of Eddie Arnold, the movie actor who starred in the TV comedy series: "Green Acres" with Eva Gabor. Many of the scenes in Arnold's movies were shot around Asheville and Brevard. The series also featured Arnold, the pig that could do so many tricks. "I asked Eddie Arnold how they were able to teach that pig all those tricks and he replied that they had about 12 to 15 pigs and each one could do a couple tricks," Hendricks revealed. Realtec hired a bunch of good-looking young girls from Brevard, dressed them up in fringed short skirts and boots, and had them drive the prospective buyers to the salesmen in golf carts so they could make their sales presentations. Then the salesmen would take the prospective buyers out to look at the falls. They started a ritual where the buyers would throw money down the falls before they started out on the tours. They would stand there and throw half dollars, quarters and dimes as far down the falls as they could throw them "After we were all through selling, I went down the sides of the falls with a metal detector and found $185.00," said Hendricks. The salesmen just followed the bulldozers on the new roads that were put in. They had plans for all four lakes and started with Ticoa, but were working on all of them. "There was a lot of earth moving going on. There was a huge wheat field where Lake Ticoa is now, near the old Batson Creek. The crew had standing orders to bulldoze the log cabins down and most were originally destroyed. The site for the old Batson home has recently been discovered. In fact, there will be a historical site grand opening there on the morning of August 9th, 2008 for the residents of Connestee. "While excavating for the lakes, we found an old carriage stuck in the mud, way down over its wheels. We tried and tried to pull it out, unsuccessfully; so we just covered it up with dirt, Many of the salesmen would just ride through the wilder areas on horseback, following the bulldozers as they opened up new areas. We had a map and we would show them where a lot was located. They originally set up thirty-two units, numbering the first lot in each unit with the number 1. I remember thinking, 'people buying those lots ain't never going to find their lot again, if they don't do something to mark them more carefully.' However, If people bought a lot they couldn't readily identify, we'd give them a time frame to come back when it was accessible. We didn't have that many people that were going to start building houses right away, as they were just looking to buy property at that time, We figured that was going to happen when we started selling the lots," Hendricks recalled. "It was never the idea to make it the retirement community it is now. It was originally planned with 1/2 acre lots as a summer place where young people could come and vacation in their cabins." Hendricks smiled as he remembered those days. The main dirt road coming in was originally called Johnson Road. It was later named Connestee Trail. The original tour was only about 10 miles long; although there are, at least, 50 miles of paved roads in the community at present. "One time, we broke out the Cherokee Dictionary and every one set down and started laughing and naming the streets. I said: 'Those people are going to hate us with those complicated names. Some of the names are not too bad, but some are almost impossible,'" Hendricks recalled with amusement. There were a lot of wild animals living there: bears, mountain lions, bobcats and such; although there were only a few deer at the time. (DuPont imported herds of deer and they migrated to the new area and multiplied where they were protected from hunting.) "There were plenty of rattle snakes and copperheads, but we ran most of them out," said Hendricks. One time, Hendricks was showing a lot to a prospective handicapped buyer who was in a wheel chair. The man wanted something flat; which is difficult to find in these mountains. However, when he was shown such a lot, they came upon a rattle snake which Hendricks killed with a little stick. The man was horrified and said that if he had known there were snakes, he wouldn't have looked at the lot. With good humor, Hendricks told him that each lot was only allowed one snake and he had already taken care of it. The golf practice range used to be where the tennis courts and the walking track are now. There also was a toboggan run down the side of the hill at that spot. Hendricks explained that it used to get much colder and that the many rainy days produced quite a lot of snow and ice. "We built a 300,000 gallon water tank near the first clubhouse. You could see the water splashing as it flowed over and filled up the whole building after a line freeze in 1976. Also, when the water tower was put in near Lake Ticoa, there were very few houses near there at the time. The pressure was so great, that those homeowners had to put suppressors on their lines," Hendricks reminisced as he toured the present area. However, the economy fell apart in 1973-74 and housing took a hit. They stopped building because people couldn't sell their houses any where. The economy was in a downturn with the Vietnam War, just about like it is now in 2008. After the marketing program closed down, Realtec sold some of those roundettes. However, one still remains and is still there in commercial use at present. Hendricks built his family one of the first log cabins in the development on Moy Toy Road. It had a wooden roof and wooden gutters; with a large fieldstone fireplace which he built himself. His five children were born in that house. His daughter, Mary, was the first child to be born in the community. The family drove them down to the main gate where they were picked up by the Brevard school busses to go to school. Hendricks says he was very lucky to be able to live there. Hendricks is now retired and spends most of his time fishing. He suffers the effects of the disability he received during his Vietnam service and has started a little project in retirement. He has an invention he has patented and is selling. It attaches to a fishing pole, vibrates when manipulated, and attracts fish. It is called "Grandpa Carl's Fish Caller." He can be located in the Transylvania phone directory on Island Ford Road, if anyone is interested in the fish lure. While touring the present day community, Hendricks remarked:"I think that, all in all, the people that worked here did a good job. What I see here now in 2008 pleases me, so much. We got it all done and were really doing our best. Now that so many people are living here, they all seem to be happy with it and that makes me feel good," concluded Hendricks. Lorraine Miller
