Fonta Flora
(Milan Miller)
It is a well-known fact that progress rarely occurs without sacrifice. In the early 1900’s, the demand for hydroelectric power was rising in Western North Carolina. By 1916, Southern Power Company (present day Duke Power) was implementing a plan to meet those demands. Many Burke County hands were enlisted to assist with clearing land, moving dirt, and pouring concrete; their sacrifice being hard labor.
For the residents of Fonta Flora, a small farming village in the shadow of Table Rock and Hawksbill, a much greater sacrifice was necessary. The nearly one hundred residents of Fonta Flora had to leave their homes forever, as their community was flooded when the waters of the Linville and Catawba Rivers were dammed.
Many people remained in Burke County, some relocating no further than to the shores of the newly formed Lake James. Others took to the highway, starting new lives in cities and towns far away.
Although no physical remnants of Fonta Flora remain, the memory of the town has been honored in recent years through the naming of various local products and land developments. In 2012, the town was also the subject of an award-winning book entitled, “Glimpses of Fonta Flora.”