Canoeing the upper Haws old mills July 2010

Made a trip on the Mighty Haw in Late July 10' with Steve to do a little fishing and to see a place where I pretty much learned how to fish but hadn't been there in a few years. My Parent's house sits on a bluff over looking the Haw. I also cut my teeth fishing the Haw as young man. The Alamance County part of the Haw has numerous dams so as a kid I fished every one I could get to. These are 2 of those dams.

This is the remains of Ireland's Dam. Most locals now call it another name but I stick with the old name. All that is left is actually the foundation of the dam which now makes it a 1 -1/2 ft tall dam. This mill started off as a grist mill in the early 1800's then was abandoned in the late 1800's. In 1913 it was turned into a power dam and there is no record of when the dam collapsed. If you zoom in to the picture of the building foundation you will see 2 trees growing on a slope. That slope is the angle of the wood dam(the dam was wooden) and the wood extended to 1/2 the height of the rock building foundation.

This is Steve looking worried as we get ready to run the tunnel .































This is Glencoe dam. There have actually been 4 dams here. The first 3 were wooden and the last was concrete. In this picture you can see the 1st and 2nd dams. First built in the late 1700's and the last dam built in 1951. Its amazing those wooden dams lasted as long as they did.














This is the "new dam" built in 1951.


































Here is a nice flower growing in the log jams just above the dam
















HERE ARE SOME ADDED PICTURES OF THIS PLANT AT ANOTHER LOCATION SHOWING THE BULB AND THE LEAF. i AM PRETTY GOOD AT IDENTIFING TREES BUT NOT SO GOOD ON SHRUBS AND SMALL PLANTS.

IF YOU KNOW THIS PLANT PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.  THANKS MACK

A sad note to this trip as we found dead fish everywhere and then learned Greensboro had released 1.5 million gallons of raw sewage into Buffaloe creek and the fish kill extended down past glenco. A very sad day.

ADDED SPRING 2014.....video of Glencoe Dam on my You Tube Channel 

Thanks Mack