Pinehurst

At the turn of the century, when Tufts first developed Pinehurst into a health resort, a cry went out throughout the south to all “Negroes” - “there is work here”. They came to work, they came for land, and they came to live.

In the 111 years since Pinehurst was first urbanized, the African-American community of Jackson Hamlet has not been able to keep pace with its neighbor. Pinehurst with its lush, green golf courses draws thousands of visitors a year. They stay in the expensive rooms of the Carolina Hotel and the Holly Inn,, or play one of eight golf courses. Many residents of Jackson Hamlet or their ancestors have worked in Pinehurst. Some of them helped build it.

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I started writing this in a comment to Momo's blog about visiting Pinehurst, and realized it was taking on a life of its own. Not wishing to steal Momo's thunder, I post it here.

Pinehurst is a beautiful place. When you walk down the quaint streets of "the village", you feel like you're on vacation. There is good shopping (though the fashions are very conservative and not my taste), the people are generally friendly (though they are generally very conservative and not my taste), and you can have a great time at Dugan's Pub (any NC Blue-er who visits this area is hereby invited for a pint on me.)

When a major golf tournament, like the US Open or the Jimmy V classic comes to the area, we residents are told by the Chamber of Commerce, various government officials, and editorials in the Pilot (our local newspaper) what a boon this will be to our economy. The roads are re-paved, beautiful landscaping is done on every exit off of every major road. In 2005, when the US Open was coming, the contractor was promised a million dollar bonus to finish before the Open on an already $47 million dollar project to widen and redirect the path of US HWY Route 1 North of Pinehurst. This project redirected Route 1 outside of the business district of Vass, and has threatened the existence local businesses. It was stated that the reason for this DOT project was to alleviate traffic and make it easier to commute to Raleigh for "jobs", there are very few Moore Co. residents who make that commute. By and large, we live all live and work here. It is the belief of many locals that this project was done for one reason, and one reason only - Golf.

Algonquin, Sioux and Cherokee Indians roamed the Sandhills following the buffalo. Few settled the area primarily due to the thick carpet of longleaf pine straw that made for hard travel and quick moving fires in the lightening season. When the Europeans discovered that longleaf pines were a good source of naval stores such as turpentine and tar, the trees in the area were quickly used up and cut down.