Herald's history series: Sylva-Cullowhee highway was being hard-surfaced in 1933

The work of hard-surfacing the unfinished link of Highway No. 106 between Cullowhee and Sylva Country Club is progressing rapidly. Grading has been going on for several weeks and the actual laying of stone has begun. The highway link is to be waterbound mascadam.

Stone is being laid on the road from both the Cullowhee and country club end of the link. The pouring of crushed stone on the Cullowhee end began at Dix Gap which is on the edge of the college community and near the college campus. Some is now being poured on that section of the highway that traverses the campus. The pouring of stone on the Sylva Country Club end of the project began several days ago.

Stone for the road is being prepared by a rock crusher that has been operating at Cullowhee for several weeks. The crusher is located at the Wike bridge and is employing a considerable number of men. The crusher is located about a half a mile from the Cullowhee end of the hard-surfacing project. Highway No. 106 is hard-surfaced from Cullowhee to several miles beyond East LaPorte. The construction of the $20,000 concrete girder bridge that is being built across the Tuckaseigee River on Highway No. 106 is reaching the last stages. Two of the four spans of the new structure were finished several days ago. The completion of the new bridge will be delayed about two weeks due to a flood on the river that recently washed out the piles of one of the spans. The costs to the contractors was several hundred dollars.

The completion of the unfinished links on Highway No. 106 between Cullowhee and Sylva will destroy the distinction that Western Carolina Teachers College has long had of being the only state institution of higher learning in North Carolina that does not enjoy the advantages of a hard-surfaced highway. The institution has long put up a fight for the completion of the important road link.

Highway No. 106 is one of the most important travel routes in Jackson County and in this section of Western North Carolina. It touches a large part of Jackson County and traverses the beautiful Sapphire country, which is famous for its summer resorts. The most famous of these resorts are High Hampton and Fairfield Estates. Highway No. 106 heads off No. 10 at Sylva and intersects No. 28 at Cashiers.

Editor's note: This is the weekly installment of a review of our back issues as The Sylva Herald and Ruralite celebrates its 75th anniversary throughout 2001.

Back to Archive: 05/10/01.