Welcome to Bell's Crossroads, North Carolina
 |
|
|
This begins the story of a world long lost, except perhaps in the memory of the people who once lived there. With each passing year, there are fewer such people to remember. Much of the area known as Bell's Crossroads, a farming community outside Troutman in Iredell County, North Carolina, now lies under Lake Norman, an artificial lake constructed in the 1950's by Duke Power Company.
These days, the word "community" is often invoked in a variety of social, political and cultural contexts. It is uttered with far more gravity than it once was, and even as the likes of Christopher Lasch, Neil Postman, Amitai Etzioni, and Hillary Clinton, have all emphasized how our communities are so vital in our lives, many of us have witnessed, in our lifetimes, the disappearance of the community as we have understood it for centuries. Today we hear of all kinds of "communities" based on various preferences, orientations and interests (the "Internet Community" not the least of them). In the midst of them, it is useful to remember Christopher Lasch's distinction between communities and "lifestyle enclaves."
It is also useful to remember what a real community used to be, or if we have no memory of such a thing, to listen to those who lived there...
John Arch Collins was a farmer in Bell's Crossroads who kept a diary. Neither scandalous nor sensational, his entries were simple records of the day's activities. But if he was not an especially detailed or eloquent diarist, he was a faithful one: His entries run, almost nightly, for at least fourteen years.
The Diary of John Arch Collins vividly recreates the vanished world of Bell's Crossroads between the years 1906 and 1922. The purpose of this site is to make that world available to you..
to Bell's Crossroads in cyberspace.
Get your own Free Home Page