Arrowood Cousins ~ Price's Creek

Poor Russ, I drug him up to the top of a mountain in Yancey County, North Carolina and he really wasn’t all that happy about going..giggle.

We struck out and I was all excited , with butterflies and everything. He had a sort of a, “Oh not again!” scowl, but he was a trooper. As he usually is.

The day was a crisp fall day, one that has that brilliant deep blue sky and that clean smell in the air. Perfect for hunting. We wound up in the vicinity of where our family lived years ago, in the mountains of Mitchell County. I had heard about an Arrowood cemetery located in Yancey county so we headed on over. I knew these were Arrowood ‘Cousins’ and not directly related but the very thought of the cemetery drew me in. They were family, after all.

We drove down country roads and the scenes were like something out of a calendar to me.

True homespun Americana. We stopped at an older looking house, complete with dogs in the yard , a chicken crowing, and a yawning cat on the porch. The old timey screen door was open and the TV was blaring in the living room. An elderly man came to the door and smiled a friendly smile..about 45 minutes later we going on our way, with not that much more info to go on, but the man was sure welcoming to the company. People sure are friendly up in ‘them thar hills‘..giggle. Russ said he was afraid we were going to have to stay for dinner, after all that!

The old timer remembered the name ‘Arrowood’ but as for burying grounds, he told me that they were “all over” these hills. We stopped and asked the fellow delivering mail, now you would think that man would have known the area, but he had not a clue. Not being able to give adequate directions is something of a handicap, according to Russ, and he does not take a ‘shine’ to people not knowing where they are or how to get there..He thinks that we ‘North Carolina Folks’ have a definite problem with directions, that’s for sure..giggle.

We petted the cat on the porch and we waved goodbye to the kind old fellow, and we were on our way once again. We came to a very populated junction of four roads. The cars were everywhere outside this store at the junction and Russ decided that maybe there were some ‘Non-North-Carolina-Folks” inside that could give us proper directions, so we stopped.

We were in the community of Price’s Creek but we did not know it at the time. The country store was a feed and seed and a mercantile for the tiny community. The very hub of that area, apparently. They were serving up grilled sandwiches behind the counter, busily feeding the noon time crowd. They were calling out orders and slinging those sandwiches for sure.

They had just about everything under one roof, but unfortunately they were all locals and not one ‘Non-North Carolinian’ was to be seen, so no directions were given to amount to anything..(according to Russ) giggle. They even had camouflage overalls there! Duck calls and ammo, and even toilet paper, what more could a country gal ask for?

I am a full-blooded NC gal and I can find my way anywhere I want to go, thank you kindly!

Russ just gets antsy at any detour or unknown, but I look on it as another great adventure.

We went on down the road and there on the left, way up in the air, I spied a fence. There was a cow enclosure around the base of the little mountain and way up, on the top, was a cemetery. Russ said..”You have got to be kidding me". "We are going up there?” I said..”Why of Course , we are!” We looked for a road leading up, but the gate was locked and there were some irritated looking sheep on the other side of the gate.

Not good to let the irritated sheep out when you are on someone else’s land, just not good at all. So we parked down along the road and opened the cow gate enclosure, locking it securely behind us, and we stomped through the mud and up the side of the steep rise. I was puffing in no time at all, wondering just what was I thinking about then, and I suddenly came to my first one.

Cow Patties. Everywhere, large, huge, still sort of moist, cow patties. Like land mines carelessly strewn about on the ground. Just lying there, waiting for me. One miss-step on that steep grade and down she comes, with cow patties to roll in with every roll. Oh goodie.

There came a point where I was grabbing for tuffs of grass to pull my way up, no kidding, but we made it. Or I should say, Russ waited for me to get up there. He marched up, with no problem at all, showing off. We opened the fence enclosure and went into the cemetery.

The Blankenship- Arrowood Cemetery on Prices Creek in Yancey County, North Carolina.

It is truly amazing that they manage to get the deceased and the tombstones up there! It is about 40 feet wide and about 150 feet long, just along the ridge of the top of the mountain. The view is beautiful! An truly amazing resting place. It is still being used, today. I took pictures of every grave and tombstone, so I could enter them into a database called ‘FindAGrave‘. It is a wonderful thing online for people searching for loved one’s graves. You can search and see the grave’s picture, if it has been entered and even leave a “flower” and a note for your loved ones. The military especially, stationed in other countries, just love FindAGrave. I know I love it, what a wonderful thing. A place where all can be remembered.

As I stood there and walked the perimeter of that quaint country burying ground, in my mind’s eyes I could see the somber procession making their way up that steep rise. A horse and wagon with the casket tied on to keep from slipping off. The recently bereaved, walking somberly behind the wagon. Leaving a flower for these souls was a true act of love, just getting up there was an act of courage.

An old timer once told me that they used the land up on top of the mountains for burying because it wasn’t good for anything else, but my romantic side wants to think it was to be closer to God and for the glorious view from the top.

Honestly, one slipped foot on the grass and it would have been a ‘slide on the face’ downward trip for Martha, cow pattie ‘tasting’ for days. Russ took my arm, thank goodness, knowing how ‘graceful‘ I can be, he was not going to take any chances. We had a long ride home and he would be hostage in the car with a ‘pouting’ woman.

That was one steep walk that I am sure glad I went on, wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Just another wonderful day for this ‘smiling still‘, graveyard rabbit.

Mission Accomplished: More Family Located.