- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

- [Jeff Sonier] From Catawba falls to the stone walls of the old Landsford canal.

The Catawba river is our river, a chain of lakes that links us to nature and to the past.

And that still brings us together today on its shores, outdoors.

We start here where the Catawba river starts, where the sounds of mountain headwaters wash away voices - Hard to believe that bit of river came from this little, wow.

- [Jeff] Where the Catawba and its branches float past family farms as the river flows through family histories.

- Back in my day, the biggest thing.

Well, I remember walking with my granddaddy over to the store.

You look at it now.

God, it looks so little.

I used to think it was so big.

- [Jeff] And were the Catawbas oldest lakes still hide their mysteries.

- Now right now we're sitting just about directly over what used to be the town of Fonta Flora.

- We just knew it was a place that used to exist that we couldn't go to in a loss community.

- [Jeff] We'll take you where the Catawba river still works like it has for a hundred years.

- This river here works hard.

If we don't treat it well, it's not going to provide the livelihoods for everybody forever.

- [Jeff] What do you think?

- It's awesome.

- It's gorgeous.

- [Jeff] And where couples offer cheers.

- Cheers - [Jeff] As the sun disappears over the river.

- Well, we're looking for a place to spend the next 30 years.

What I like about it is it's not cosmopolitan.

It's not big city.

- [Jeff] No, it's definitely not big city, but the Catawba river is big.

Big enough for all of us to find our own little place on the lake to put a paddle in the puddle or drop a line at our favorite fishing hole.

- Yeah, we come here boating.

We were on the beach in the water almost every weekend.

- [Jeff] Or maybe just cool off with the kids on a hot summer day.

- We love the lake.

We love the waters.

- [Jeff] And I'm guessing you can't keep them out of the water?

- No, not at all.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're we're water people for sure.

- [Clay Veasy] I'm telling you from the sky, this water can look like the Caribbean after a while.

It really can - [Jeff] For 200 miles through both Carolinas, we'll be cruising the Catawba, all its natural glories and its scrapbook stories.

As PBS Charlotte presents Catawba 100 our century on the river.

- [Announcer] Catawba 100 our century on the river is brought to you by the Catawba Wateree water management group is helping to preserve, protect and manage our water resources for now and the future.

More information at www.catawbawatereewmg.org At Ingles we know your closest companions are the ones who are always there for you.

The ones you trust to have your back, no matter what, who make the hard times a little softer and the good ones, somehow a little better.

(swing music) - [Jeff] Through the trees, before you can see the headwaters, you can hear the headwaters.

Beyond the bridge and past the old power station covered with moss.

Until you finally reach the falls tiptoeing across the rocks where the Catawba is little more than a mountain stream.

(western music) (water rushing) (western music continues) - [Jeff] There's a wide path alongside the Catawba here at Catawba falls and even the birds and the quiet conversations get drowned out by the, the rush of the water, clear and cold and clean right down to the bottom.

- [Gena] It's just beautiful, and it's a really nice doable walk it's not too hard.

- [Jeff] The Farris' are here for the first time.

Husband, Mickey and wife, Gena spending the day - [Gena] It's worth coming to see.

(western music continues) - It's just really a pretty sight, and he was commenting it's hard to believe that that big a river came from this little falls - [Jeff] Beyond the falls, the Catawba widens and wanders past these pastures through the stony mountain towns.

Fed by the creeks and streams that flow into the river, each one, looking like an old picture postcard.

(western music continues) And check out these old fishing films from the forties on a branch of the Catawba near Blowing Rock.

The signs say no fishing, but apparently nobody told these trout that took the hook.

(western music continues) - Here in Blowing Rock is where the Catawba River watershed reaches farthest North and the tributaries of the Catawba river, well, they're a little more than half a mile from here, not half a mile south, but in this case, half a mile straight down.

These waters are where families have also farmed for generations.

This old film shows Joe Hartley's family farm in Linville with its acres of hillside apple orchards.

(western music continues) (bluegrass music) - Today, there's a Joe Hartley road in Linville, but no more Joe Hartley farm.

Although if you follow this same stretch of Linville river that crossed his old farm fields, you'll also find the same general store that's been here a hundred years.

(bluegrass music continues) These days, the old Hampton store that used to serve farmers and their families now serves up its famous barbecue with a side of blue grass on a front porch stage at the stores old butcher shop.

(bluegrass music continues) - I'm Joe Hampton.

- I'm Jim Hampton.

- [Jeff] The Hampton brothers spent summers here at their granddaddy's store when they were kids and at the Hampton family farm right next door to the Hartley family farm that we saw in those old films - And I can remember living on the farm down there.

Of course, I was always excited to be able to come to the, come down to the store.

If we ask Papa would give us a drink or candy, you know, that kind of thing.

But there's always seeing people come in and out and all that stuff.

- [Jim Hampton] They had groceries.

They had a lot of clothing.

They had a lot of shoes for the women, shoes for the men - [Jeff] shoes for the horses too - Shoes for the horses, absolutely.

- [Joe] Provide farm equipment, plumbing, all that stuff.

Shotgun, guns, ammunition.

- All the fishing gear, hunting gear (bluegrass music continues) - [Jeff] The store has always been a place where people come together, bluegrass and barbecue lovers today, hunters and fishermen in the old days.

- [Joe] This is after the bear hunt - [Jeff] showing off their trophies here, sharing their stories here at the old Hampton store, which really wasn't so old when these pictures were taken.

- [Jim] That's papa Hampton there's mama - People would come in.

Particularly the older guys would come in and they'd sit around the stove.

You look at it now, God, it looks so little.

I used to think it was so big and Papa, he actually down around Pineola, he bought some land down there so he could fish had Linville river running right through it.

And he would take us down there to fish.

- [Jeff] And while the Linville river still makes its way to the Catawba river, just as it always has those afternoons fishing the river, those summers at the store are just memories for the Hampton brothers now.

Their family doesn't own the store anymore, but the new owners say old names and old memories are worth saving, which is why this old store still looks pretty much like it did before.

- A lot of these places are, if they're not kept up or they're not being used, then they dilapidate, and they're basically useless - [Jeff] But they have, when they can be preserved, these are great buildings.

These are great reminders of what it used to be like around this place - They have good bones for someone to say, we'd like to have it and do something different with it, no, we like what it is the community like what it is, and the tourists really like what it is.

- [Jeff] It would be a shame to lose something like this.

- [Steve] Yeah, sure would (guitar music) (boat engine) - [Clay Veasy] So we're here on lake James in Western North Carolina lake James is the first lake in the chain of lakes along the Catawba river in North Carolina.

- [Jeff] Lake James isn't the biggest, or the smallest lake on the Catawba.

- It was built by duke energy company back in the early 1900's.

They started construction on the dams in 1916 I think.

They called themselves duke power company back then.

- [Jeff] It's not the oldest lake or the youngest - Oh here come some bumps, - [Jeff] But skidding across these clear blue waters on this clear blue sky day, Park ranger, Clay Veasy says you won't see these mountain views on a cruise of any other Catawba lake.

- In the past few years, hasn't changed tremendously.

- [Jeff] Nope.

That's a good thing.

- That's right.

Yeah.

It is nice to come to a lake and still have some pristine shoreline where you don't have to look at houses and boat docks and things like that.

Yeah.

- [Jeff] Veasy says you come here to lake James to look instead at Mount Mitchell and the black mountains to the west.

- Here comes a good view of, of Linville Gorge - [Jeff] Yeah that's Linville Gorge, and grandfather mountain twelve miles to the north and 2000 feet of above lake James and to the south of lake James - Moving down the old Catawba river channel off at the distance right there, that mountain range has called the south mountains - [Jeff] Yep.

Mountain views in three different directions on a lake formed by three different dams built a century ago with century old engineering.

(bango music) - [Clay] They would drive the train out, it was loaded in dirt and over and over and over again, they would dump that dirt out until they completely covered up the train trestle or the bridge they had built, then they would pull the tracks up.

- [Jeff] And as the lake James dams rose higher and wider, so did the water level turning old farm houses into lake houses.

(western music) - [Jeff] Be careful.

Yeah.

- We rebuilt this that was where the logs were (western music continues) - [Jeff] Jim Crooks shows us his old house from the 1800's where the Linville river joins lake James - [Jim] That's pretty solid - [Jeff] Where the hardwood floors and pine ceilings are all original.

- [Jim] Yeah this is a spiral staircase.

(western music continues) - [Jeff] All on a farm that was once in the lost community of Fonta flora.

- [Clay] So on the lake bottom down below us, there are still some old ruins.

Homes, a church, maybe be a post office, maybe a general store.

- [Helen Norman] They had rumors that it was coming - [Jeff] Helen Norman's not a professional historian, but she sure knows her Fonta Flora history.

- [Helen] On the map, you can see where the houses were.

Railroads are all shown on it.

And there were a lot of roads crisscrossing.

- [Jeff] Wow.

That roof is completely gone.

It must've been like a ghost town.

- [Helen] If they could have voted about whether or not that lake was to come, they would have voted no.

That was Fanta flora.

If you lived here and said, I'm going to Fonta flora, you go right there.

That's where they shopped They had a store, they went there to get their mail.

- [Jeff] Helen also shows us the properties that the power company didn't buy for lake James, the fringes of Fonta flora.

That's still survived.

- Here's this island right here.

- Okay.

That's graveyard island right there.

Including this old cemetery.

That's only accessible by boat.

- Right across the top of it is where the, the, the graves that we took pictures of were.

- [Jeff] At this Fonta Flora farm, when the lake level is low, you can still find horseshoes from the old blacksmith's shop.

- I do know they used to be a blacksmith shop and all the horseshoes all around that - [Jeff] Under the water?

- Under the water, yeah.

- [Jeff] Wow.

- Right over again, the hill out there - [Jeff] Helen introduces us to the owners of this Fonta flora home, that used to be the Fonta flora school.

- [Jeff Johns] But that is the original bell, and that, that is the original structure right there, there is one existing photo that I know of the class of '24 - [Mrs Johns] It was a big house.

- [Jeff Johns] These logs, I guess, were timbers from the house, those stones - [Jeff] And this foundation is all that's left of Fonta Flora is old McGimpsey home.

- [Helen] The McGimpsey's were one of the most prominent families in Fonta Flora, I had never heard of it when I was growing up, it was never mentioned I, I had no idea that such a place existed.

- We just knew it was a place that used to exist that we couldn't go to.

But one of the most distinct memories is my, my aunt Esther, my aunt Essie I remember her sharing stories about Fonta flora and it was always with fond memories and a sense of nostalgia in, in a lost community.

- [Jeff] Valaida Fullwood's aunt Essie was born in Fonta flora, so was Valaida's great, great grandfather, Riley McGimpsey who lived in that same old McGimpsey home and manage that same Fonta flora farm we visited earlier on the shores of lake James before there was a lake James.

- It's been a part of my family story for as long as I can remember, for some people Fonta Flora never left.

They were born and raised and have the sweetest memories of growing up there, and I see legacy.

I see pride.

I see progress.

- [Jeff] Valaida's family legacy may be this lake itself, how it washed away part of her family's hometown, but not her family's history.

And now the pride comes in keeping that Fonta Flora history alive.

- Yes, this is Mary Maldonia Fullwood my great, great grandmother.

One of the daughters of Riley McGimpsey - [Jeff] As a writer and speaker, Valaida retelling those personally Fonta Flora stories.

- Riley eventually became a sharecropper.

It's so true, I really feel so connected when I go back to Burt county, that sense of longing and absence or grief over the loss of that community, and knowing that a hundred plus years ago, that family members established a life, a community, and a place of their own and lived their lives in those spaces really, really makes me feel rooted in that area.

- [Jeff] That lake that took the town is also a beautiful reminder of the town, I suppose.

- Yes.

I'd like to think so.

And the sun setting on the mountains is just overwhelming.

(light guitar music) (water rushing) - [Jeff] Downstream from lake James here in Morganton, starts a stretch of the Catawba where the river actually works as hard as it plays, where power plants on the Catawba provide electricity, where filtration plants on the Catawba provide drinking water.

And we're industrial plants on the Catawba have provided jobs for generations.

- [Brad Boris] The river works hard and we try to mitigate as many impacts as we can as users of the water.

So the river doesn't have to do it.

If we don't treat it well, it's not going to provide the livelihoods for everybody forever.

- [Jeff] Brad Boris is Morgantons, water resources director.

- We are actually the first water recipient of the water that comes out of lake James.

We're the first municipality, the first water intake.

Our mission is to manage this resource.

There's a lot of impacts that cause this river to work extra hard, and if there's a point where we're not managing the water resource to treat the water, to make it pristine high quality, we don't have any excuses.

I want my grandkids and your grandkids and great-grandkids to enjoy it, and without us doing work now, that's not going to happen.

- [Jeff] Farther down the river, near the dam at lake Rhodhiss where the Catawba is blue and still these lifelong river residents remember still the original Rhodhiss cotton mill just below the dam.

The old mill buildings are long gone, but the workers back then were their families and friends.

And now these mill workers sons, and daughters raised on these waters all have mill town memories, not fading memories, but clear as the river itself.

- John Rhodes and George Hiss built a plant right here - [Jeff] Rhodes, Hiss, Rhodhiss - Exactly - Sherrie Sigmon and grew up in Rhodhiss.

That's her husband's mother and grandfather, in this film from the forties outside the old brick school house and here above the Rhodhiss dam at the rock quarry, well, Carl Compton shows us where he dog paddled in the Catawba as a child.

- We was always told don't you go to that river till you learn how to swim, well, if you don't go to the river, how mean, you know how you going to learn how to swim?

- [Jeff] That's where you learn?

- Yeah - [Jeff] Dog paddle?

- Yeah, it is.

- [Jeff] Wow.

- Back here, you can see the horseshoe shaped dam and that trestle washed away in the 1916 flood.

- [Jeff] Yep Rhodhiss is another river town filled with those moments and memories.

- It was a picnic area and it was one of the train stops - [Jeff] Everybody with their own river stories to tell and re-tell.

- That's why I used to take kids when they wanted to go fishing first time.

- [Jeff] But there's also one single moment here in Rhodhiss - You know, when everybody read about it, we was excited, you know, but - [Sherrie] They had a big party.

- Yeah.

- [Jeff] One shared memory in this river town.

- When we went back to school, elementary school, let me tell ya, the kids had something to talk about.

We were proud.

We were very proud.

- [Announcer] Yes indeed they've got the flag up now and you can see the stars and stripes - [Carl] The employees didn't know - [Announcer] Beautiful, just beautiful - [Carl] That they were weaving the material for the flag until a company put a notice up on the board.

When they landed on the moon.

- [Jeff] Yup, we're floating outside of old Burlington Number two, the other mill of Rhodhiss across the Catawba that made the material for the flag that made it to the moon.

Carl was working at the mill back then.

So was Sherrie's father.

- Daddy came home and we were emotional.

I'm here to tell you, I mean, everybody in this town was so proud.

- [Jeff] And today Rhodhiss is still proud of its moment on the moon.

You'll see the Apollo 11 flag on the Rhodhiss town flag flying outside town hall.

And inside town hall, well, here's a cutting from the original moon flag fabric.

As this river town connects to that historic one small step.

- [Sherrie] And our employees were hard workers they were dedicated to the job - [Jeff] But eventually even after the recognition of Rhodhiss by NASA for their work on the space program, those jobs disappeared.

Those hard workers fell on hard times.

And those two mills in Rhodhiss across the Catawba that employed so many for so long said, you know, so long.

- You know, these people's coming off the greatest high and achievement that, that they was going to do in their lifetime.

And then, and then to be standing under that rug, when it's seemingly pulled right out from under your feet.

- For seven years, all the employees lived in fear because the first one left, the second one would leave.

- [Jeff] Sherrie still has the photos from those last days at Burlington - Here's my Dad right there.

- [Jeff] Her daddy and his longtime coworkers together on those last shifts.

- [Sherrie] It was like a death in the family.

And my daddy called me and my daddy cried on the phone - I'll have to find myself - [Jeff] Carl lost his job at Burlington, too - That's me right here - [Jeff] The mills in Rhodhiss just like the river part of his earliest memories.

- [Carl] When we moved up here, I didn't get to start school till I was seven years old.

- [Jeff] But while the now empty mill alongside the Catawba stands as a bittersweet monument to better times the river itself lives on.

And when you live on the river or fish on the river or paddle on the river, you realize those better times really never left.

- Okay now the further up the lake you go, above castle bridge, the quieter it gets.

- [Jeff] Because the Catawba is still here.

The people are still here.

The memories are still here.

(piano music) (water rippling) (calm guitar music) - [Host] What do you think?

- It's awesome.

- It's gorgeous.

- Brett and Deborah Hess are here to see Lake Hickory all the way from Indiana.

(calm guitar music continues) - What I like about it is it's not cosmopolitan.

It's not big city.

- [Host] And they're also celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.

- Well, we're looking for a place to spend the next 30 years.

- And the lake is such a great area.

I mean, when you're a kid, where else do you want to be but in the water.

(calm guitar music continues) We've done a lot of boating on the lake over the years, so... - [Host] Scott Sweeney pilots the boat on this Lake Hickory dinner cruise where nobody's really in a hurry and everybody's celebrating something.

- Cheers.

- [Host] There's wining and fine dining and the sun is shining.

♪ And if you can't get what you want ♪ ♪ Learn to love the things you got ♪ ♪ And if you can't get what you need ♪ ♪ Learn to need the thing that stopped you dreaming ♪ - [Host] Always a little live music on board, too, plus for special occasions, maybe balloons and a cake.

But what they're really here for is, you know, the lake.

(lighthearted acoustic music) - It is a beautiful, smooth night out tonight.

We're gonna have a beautiful evening on the Catawba River.

Thank you again so much for joining us.

(lighthearted acoustic music continues) (water rippling) - And it makes a memory for a lifetime.

- [Host] Chad Burel owns Lake Hickory Adventures which hosts these sunset dinner trips on a stretch of the Catawba River beyond the mountain lakes, but before you reach Charlotte, so close for so many, but so far, also surprisingly, undiscovered.

(lighthearted acoustic music continues) - Until very recently, it hasn't been accessible to the public.

It was a place for your campers or your RVs.

It was difficult for the average person that didn't have a boat or a house on the lake.

They just couldn't get out here.

And so one thing that's special about Lake Hickory is it's just now coming into its own as something that the public can enjoy.

So people can get out, enjoy this beautiful blessing God's given us.

(lighthearted acoustic music continues) Sit down with 20 or 30 or 40 strangers and you make friends and you exchange memories and we've had people getting engaged and married and anniversaries and birthdays and date nights, it's just fantastic to be a part of it.

(lighthearted acoustic music continues) It's the memories, it's the joy, it's the celebrations of being part of people's special memories that make this worthwhile.

(lighthearted acoustic music continues) - [Host] And while the photos capture all those special moments, what makes them even more special is spending time on this lake itself, so many visiting for the first time, already looking forward to the next time.

- [Chad] And who knew it's gorgeous at night with the stars and the full moon or who knew it's gorgeous in December with the lights all lit up for Christmas.

Who knew the lake was beautiful all year round.

(lighthearted acoustic music continues) - [Host] Another river cruise, another river night, another river sunset.

(lighthearted acoustic music continues) - Something relaxing, something romantic, something memorable that they'll never forget.

It's just a delight to share it.

(lighthearted acoustic music continues) (lighthearted acoustic music fades) (joyful old film music) - [Narrator] They say every town has its main street.

Well, this is ours.

- [Host] Mooresville was here before the lake was here.

- [Andy] Oh yes, yes.

- [Narrator] Our fathers and mothers in our hometown... - [Host] Did Mooresville understand what was about to happen?

(nostalgic piano music) That they were about to become a lake community?

- Nobody did no.

Nobody understood what impact that lake was going to be because the sheer size of it.

I mean, 500 miles of shoreline, and it is the biggest man-made lake in the Southeast.

- [Host] Mooresville historian, Andy Poore is talking about Lake Norman, the Catawba River's new kid on the block.

(nostalgic piano music continues) - This is the actual map and there's the river.

- [Host] He traces on this old 1917 canvas map where the Catawba was a hundred years ago and where the lake is today.

- [Andy] All of this is all under Lake Norman.

- [Host] Andy also has vintage postcards from the 60s and 70s when they broke ground on the dam that formed Lake Norman.

- This of course shows the dam.

This was taken about the 1970s.

They actually sculpted and created Lake Norman.

- Wow.

- [Host] Old photos showing the old roads and bridges that disappeared under the rising water.

(nostalgic piano music continues) When new roads and bridges were built to cross the lake that wasn't there yet.

- [Andy] This is the bridge.

I mean, this is the tributary that ran under it.

And that's Lake Norman.

- [Host] Wow.

- [Andy] This is what's going to be Lake Norman, right there.

(nostalgic piano music continues) My parents were both in the band in 1960, in the high school band, and they played at the groundbreaking for the dam.

We had a little lake house on the lake so we would go spend our weekends or summers out on the lake.

- [Host] Family by family, that lake changed lives I suppose, it changed how you lived your life.

- [Andy] Yes, it did, it really did.

Lake Norman has sorta tied all of these communities together, whereas they used to be separate little individual pockets, because the other part of it was not just the lake, but it was the interstate.

(nostalgic piano music continues) - [Host] Yup, a few years after Lake Norman came, so did I-77, North of Charlotte in 1968, connecting those little towns like Mooresville on the big growing lake to the big growing city.

And that's when Lake Norman became a different kind of lake.

(nostalgic piano music continues) - [Boots] The large house immediately to the right, the beige house with the brown roof is the former residence of movie star Burt Reynolds.

- [Host] Attracting movie stars and race cars.

- That house was just recently sold, it was the home of Kurt Busch, the NASCAR driver.

- [Host] Boots Beasley says lake Norman today is home to movers and shakers.

- That's the former residence of North Carolina Panther player, Mr. Julius Peppers.

It has a bale tower located on the top of the house.

- [Host] And back in the day, maybe even some moonshine makers.

- A lot of it has not been verified, but if you tell a story long enough, it becomes fact.

(laughs) - [Host] Beasley's been telling stories on Lake Norman about Lake Norman for 17 years.

(boat horn blaring repeatedly) He's a captain on the Catawba Queen, the Lake Norman tour boat that takes passengers on a different kind of history lesson.

(nostalgic piano music continues) - That's not official history.

(host laughing) - But it's pretty colorful, is it?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah (nostalgic piano music continues) I'm on the water probably 253 hundred days a year.

- [Host] These sightseers snap pictures as Beasley sails past the fancy and famous homes, the familiar Lake Norman landmarks, and the not so familiar, like this old A Frame that was blown into the lake during hurricane Hugo.

And on this trip, when Lake Norman starts storming... - Where we are fighting a (indistinct), I've got to get further off shore here.

- [Host] Well, the stories will have to wait for now as Beasley guides his 42-ton tour boat filled with passengers through 50-mile-an-hour lake wind.

(boat engine revving) I'm looking out these windows and see what you mean about... - It's windy, see how the wind shifts?

I'm doing is all I can do to push this boat out of the shore.

(nostalgic piano music continues) Ladies and gentlemen, I'ma have to stay a little bit further off shore than normal.

Due to this wind til it lets up a little.

- [Host] That storm kind of came up from nowhere, didn't it?

- It wasn't supposed to get here that quick.

I saw it coming, but it wasn't supposed to get in this quick, but it sure did.

- [Host] Finally, once the storm passes, while the passengers get another chance to step outside, to see the sites, to hear the stories... - Well actually, this was a birthday present for me.

I've never been on Lake Norman before.

I love lakes.

- [Host] Sarah Brust is here with her daughter, Isabel.

- Okay captain, jump me in and grab two handfuls.

- [Host] Who actually got a chance to steer the Catawba Queen before the storm.

(nostalgic piano music continues) - I was scared I was gonna hit something, but other than that I was good.

- [Host] Nice mother-and-daughter day on the lake.

- [Sarah] Yes, absolutely - Yeah!

- It's beautiful.

- So you're a lake girl, is she a lake girl, too?

- [Both] Yeah.

- I'd say so.

- Ish, really?

(Sarah laughs) - I like pools better.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- This is a pretty big pool.

- Yes, it is.

(nostalgic piano music continues) - Yeah, I grew up on this lake, get all my dates in, and running around and lake's been being in our family's history ever since (indistinct).

(nostalgic piano music continues) - [Host] And these days, Catawba Queen Captain, Boots Beasley, says the best part of his job may be sharing his lake and his lake history with other families so they can make Lake Norman, their lake too.

(nostalgic piano music continues) (water rippling) - [Dieter] That's the cool thing about the whole Catawba.

I mean, you follow it from up there in the mountains and foothills, totally different Lake, totally different water, totally different fish, than when you get down here.

(fishing pole reel whirring) (water splashing) - [Host] Dieter Melhorn shows us his favorite fishing spots here on Lake Wylie.

(fishing pole reel whirring) - [Dieter] Throw out at the lake, look around.

- [Host] Where the catfish are biting near the old Allen Steam Station, Belmont.

- [Dieter] Another catfish.

And these are the native fish.

These are channel catfish.

These are native to the Catawba River.

- [Host] Yeah, mostly small fry today not the big cats that Dieter's hauled in on other days out here.

(guitar music) - The old river channel sweeps right over here.

It's real deep, right there.

(guitar music continues) (water rippling) - [Host] A little farther south on Lake Wylie, we're tracking this school of perch.

(water rippling) - What we're trying to do is catch some white perch right here.

They get schooled up, you can catch them, they're stacked up, and when they get stacked up, you can catch a pile of them.

(guitar music continues) - [Host] Another perch?

- Another perch.

Getting bigger, he's at least a half inch bigger than the first one, so... (laughs) (guitar music) (boat engine revving) - [Host] Dieter also takes us up Lake Wylie, near the dam at Mountain Island Lake, because you know, that's where the fish are.

- A lot of fishermen come up here in the spring time because a lot of the, there's little perch.

The bigger ones, they make a spawning run and come up through here.

- [Host] Wow.

Dieter knows a lot about these waters.

He's been fishing, this same stretch of the Catawba since he was a kid.

- After the flood.

- After the flood.

- Yeah.

- [Host] Fishing for fun back then, fishing for a living now as a fishing guide and fishing photographer, but he says it's still fun just like it used to be.

- Working a mill, I'll wait, get off on Friday night, go sit down at the river, and drink beer and catch fish and... Badabing!

Another beautiful specimen.

(guitar music continues) - [Host] Decades ago, local fishermen would take their catch to a Catawba fish camp where they'd fry it up and serve it up right there on the river.

Sort of like they still do by request here at Catfish Cove.

(fryer sizzling) (indistinct) (kitchen bustling) - [Kent] We have a couple of regulars bring their fish every week and we still cook the same way that we have for 50 years, really.

(country music) I mean, if it's catfish, yeah, you can come, I could cull it back here.

- [Host] Kent Stowe is the owner of Catfish Cove here on the banks of the Catawba River South Fork.

Founded by his late father, Raymond Stowe, 31 years ago, after cooking at Lineberger's Fish Camp for 32 years.

- Lineberger's is about the only restaurant around here, and they have, had to get the county police to direct traffic out on the highway because it is so busy.

You don't try this on Saturdays.

(country music continues) - Lines wrapped around the building, people come from miles around, back in the 70s, early 80s to eat at Lineberger's.

(country music continues) - [Host] Now they all come to eat at Catfish Cove and the other Gaston County Fish Camps that are still here, all still serving up those same fried platters of fish and shrimp with hush puppies and slaw on the side.

They don't really compete with each other because there's plenty of fish to eat with each other.

- [Martha] I mean, bottom line is people come for the food.

- [Host] Martha Stowe also worked at Lineberger's before coming to Catfish Cove.

She's been waiting tables for fish camp customers since she was a teenager.

- It's perch, calabash shrimp, double crab, and clams...

I'm serving your children and grandchildren now.

(country music continues) You know, it was, it was a Friday night, Saturday night thing.

- [Host] And on this Friday night, on this same stretch of the old Catawba, well, it's still a thing, still kids at the caddy counter, still the clatter of platters in the kitchen, (kitchen bustling) the fish still fried, the customers still satisfied.

That's what everybody comes for, the catfish, right?

- Yeah, it's Catfish Cove.

(host laughs) (country music continues) (guitar music) - The water belongs to everyone.

- [Host] But former Catawba River keeper, Sam Perkins, says coves and creeks are also where you often find runoff and leaks on Lake Wylie.

(guitar music continues) - This is Long Creek.

It was upstream here where the spill occurred close to '45.

- [Host] Perkins takes us back in 2018 to the side of North Carolina's biggest sewage leak ever, right here on Lake Wylie and to the lakeside construction projects where runoff can also ruin water quality all along the Catawba.

- So you can tell there's been erosion happening here.

It's not like they just cleared this today.

There's a lot of home development.

Now back up and along tributaries that feed the lake, you have all this lake frontage.

You have thousands of miles of shoreline where people have said, "Hey, we want to come have a lake home.

It's no longer a shack out in the boonies".

(guitar music continues) - [Host] And Perkins adds that's the real challenge now, keeping up with all that growth, all that development, to keep all these lakes clean and pristine.

- I'm telling you from the sky, this water can look like the Caribbean after a while.

It really can.

We want people to be comfortable in the water to come out be close to the water, to have an appreciation for it.

(waves splashing) - We come here boating, we're on the beach in the water, almost every weekend.

(guitar music continues) (waves splashing) We love the lake, we love the water.

(guitar music continues) - [Host] And I guess you can't keep him out of the water?

- No, not at all, yeah.

(host laughs) Yeah, we're water people, for sure.

(guitar music continues) (waves splashing) (guitar music) - Ready?

Pull it down.

Let me throw this to you.

That way, like I said if you want, when we get down here.

(bass guitar music) All right, paddling out to the middle.

Try to see if I can get the jet.

- Yeah.

Well, if you paddle south of lake Wiley for about 26 miles, well, that brings you here to our final stop cruising to Catawba.

Just outside the old lands for canal and right in the middle of the spider lilies.

A rare plant that puts on a rare show every May and June.

♪ Oh Catawba, ♪ Rolling on for days - [Al] I am sure that people have known about these things for hundreds of years.

♪ Oh Catawba ♪ Rolling on for days When you've got this in your backyard it is something pretty special.

♪ Oh Catawba - [Jeff] So that's me out there in the red kayak and Lansford canal park manager, Al James, is in the blue canoe.

Just paddling through the scholls and shallows.

- The adventurous people.

This is the way to see the lilies.

Just an amazing thing to sit there and look at the entire expanse of what's out here.

♪ Rocky river, rolling towards the shore ♪ - [Al] Field of green covered in snow is what it looks like in full peak.

♪ Rocky river, rolling towards the shore ♪ - [Jeff] Spider lilies are aquatic plants that thrive on this single rocky stretch of the Catawba river.

Elsewhere, where the water's too shallow, There's no sediment for the roots.

And if it's too deep, well, the blooms are all underwater.

Plus these delicate white flowers only last 24 to 36 hours.

That's why spider lilies are so rare.

Everywhere, but here at Lansford canal.

Where there are more spider lilies than anywhere else in the world.

- [Al] Yes, this is the largest population, a little over 20 acres of plants here almost as far as you can see north to as far as you can see south to all the way across the river.

- [Jeff] And the easiest place for you to see the spider lilies in full bloom is from this Riverside observation deck.

Right on the edge of the Catawba.

The view in all directions is spectacular.

- There's like thousands.

I wanted to come out here and see it for my own eyes and they are beautiful.

- [Jeff] But if you want a closer look.

- [Al] It's an adventure.

We like to say it's an adventure.

- [Jeff] Well, grab an oar and come explore with us.

Is it a hard puddle?

- At low water it's more difficult.

And low water means a lot more rocks and very smaller channels that you have to look for to get downstream.

Trying to find passages through the rocks and the cracks and stuff like that is a little bit more difficult.

- [Jeff] I just saw a fish jump.

- [Al] Oh yeah.

I heard it splash.

That was probably one of our longnose gar.

- [Jeff] Is this the closest to what it used to be like?

- [Al] This section of the river is the longest free flowing open section of the Catawba watery chain, natural museum.

Natural museum of Landsford canal.

- [Jeff] Meanwhile, Lansford canal itself is sort of a living history museum.

- [Al] This system here at Landsford was started in about 1820 and completed in 1823.

- [Jeff] So this is 200 year old engineering?

- [Al] Basically.

- [Jeff] So those, those long boats filled with Cottonwood come into this lock system.

- Correct?

Come up here.

The gate would have been closed and they would have stopped right here.

- You know, it's, it's so well preserved.

And so well built for 200 years old.

That's amazing.

- Just looking at the chamber here where the edge of the gate would have pivoted.

- [Jeff] James says stonemasons from New York and Boston, built these locks from solid granite for a bridge and canal system that runs alongside the Catawba for two miles.

- Again, the canal system was designed to bypass all the rocks and scholls and shallows out in the river and to do that and get goods and materials downstream, these boats were 65 feet long, 9 feet wide, carried approximately 50 bales of cotton.

- You got the slow boat to Charleston basically.

- Yes and we're sure it probably took months.

I mean, the canal was designed to collect tolls from merchandise that was sent downstream and they actually had tolls listed for passengers.

- [Jeff] So it wasn't just a bypass, it was a toll road.

- Yes it was a toll road.

A couple of hundred feet from the river and miles away from everything.

- [Jeff] Farther up the river.

You can see the old rocks they use to divert water into the canal.

And the old toll path which follows the same Native American trail used by the Catawba nation.

That's where the river itself gets its name.

- [Al] Again.

This was really close to the Catawba Indian Nations reservation.

And this is how people and animals would have walked the boats down the canal.

- [Jeff] That same path is how visitors get to Lansford canal today.

Walking the same route those cotton boats followed 200 years ago.

There are diagrams and illustrations to show you how it all worked.

But the tall walls that carried water then carry only voices now.

- It's a lot bigger than I think you can really capture on cameras when you're down there, you feel so itty bitty.

- Exactly.

So many scenic spots that you can just enjoy and relax in.

- And it's peaceful.

It's just peaceful out here.

- I love to bring people who are visiting here.

And so, and any excuse to come and take pictures.

I love to come in all the different seasons.

I love to see the spider lilies and everything.

It's just such a treasure.

(piano music) - Most people come out pretty amazed.

This looks like how it would have looked probably thousands and thousands of years ago.

- [Jeff] But today on this one last unspoiled stretch of the Catawba.

Well, how about one last paddle into a past that's still preserved here on a river that's been changing for the past 100 years.

(piano music) - [Jeff] Our century on the river, on our river, the Catawba river.

(piano music) - [Narrator] Catawba 100.

Our century on the river is brought to you by, The Catawba river has a rich history and Charlotte Mecklenburg stormwater services cares for its future by improving water quality, engaging volunteers, reducing flood risks, and improving storm drainage details at stormwater.CharMeck.org.

- [Narrator] At Ingles, We know your closest companions are the ones who are always there for you.

The ones you trust to have your back, no matter what, who make the hard times a little softer and the good ones, somehow a little better.

- [Narrator] The Catawba watery water management group is helping to preserve, protect, and manage our water resources for now and the future.

More information at Catawbawatereewmg.org (piano music) - [Narrator] A production of PBS Charlotte.