Author's Notes

My family moved out to the country in 1978. We lived in an old farmhouse for a while, until our new house was built. It was across the street from an old grain mill and a dam. My younger brother and I just fell in love with the place. We'd stay down at the river from after school until dark. We were there so much that my brother earned the nickname River Rat. Sometimes I would go there to be alone and think; I loved the roar of the water as it crashed over the dam.

This old stone dam is more than a two hundred years old, it was built in 1789. In the next few years, a much larger dam and reservoir are to be built miles downstream. This will flood the place where my brother and I spent so much time.

However, I was not only lamenting the loss of a special place from my past, but the loss of the close relationship that I once had with my younger brother. I came out to him and his wife after Wolfmoon and I had gotten married in 1992. At first, he seemed fine with the information, but it was short-lived. By the next spring, neither of my brothers were speaking to me. At the time this poem was written, we had been estranged for five years.

An Update:

It's now September 2004, and the above author's notes were written a few months before my site first came online in 2001. The Water Authority bought my parents property in 1997, but allowed them to live there until their new house was finished, which was in July of 1998. In the fall of 2002, a group of us from work toured the nearly completed Randleman Dam. At the time though, they weren't damming the river yet. When asked why, our tour guide explained there were still some bridges to be replaced. Then once those were built, the few remaining dams upriver would be torn down, and then they would close the gates and let the water start creating the new Randleman Reservoir. My beloved dam at Coltrane Mill was one of these.

And a few weeks ago, a friend at work, told me to go check out the old dam, and that the new bridge over the river had been finished and was now open to public traffic. Kodi and I finally drove by there yesterday.

It had been quite a while since I'd been out that way, and the last time I was, everything had still been the same. But now the area has totally changed. I hardly knew where I was. The road in front of where my family once lived has been realigned and leads straight to the new bridge. Gone are the two sharp curves in the road, along with my parents' house and barn, as well as the old mill that was across the street. To my surprise though, the old dam was still standing, mostly, only a portion on one side had been torn down, allowing the water to flow around the rest of it. The new bridge was built about thirty feet directly behind the old dam. The new bridge itself was quite impressive. It's so much longer and higher in the air than the old bridge. And it's wide enough for two lanes of traffic and then some, where as the old one was just a tiny single lane wooden bridge.

It felt strange walking around in what had once been a place that had been so familiar and was now so very differant. I was a little sad to see all the changes, but happy that most of the old dam still remains.

The Water Authority still isn't ready to start damming Deep River yet. That may be several years down the road, since it seems there are still a few more bridges farther up river that need replacing and one more small dam to be torn down. I know where that dam is as well, but I still haven't had a chance to get by there and check it out. I'm just not sure how close I'll be able to get to it. The bridge over the river there is one that's scheduled to be rebuilt. Since I don't usually drive that road, it could be in the process of being rebuilt now.

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