THE HOWSER HOUSE
Many weeks into our time at Kings Mountain,
Barbara responded to a Howser House question by saying something like “You must
have the wrong park...” Fortunately the bookstore manager, Wilma, stepped in to
say the house (which Barbara had never heard of before) is in the park and
shown only twice a year by the Brigade of Friends of Kings Mountain. The house
is not on the park map and is only advertised near its Open House.
The house is on the
aptly-named Rock House Road,
but a locked gate and long driveway hide it from the road. Rare in this area, a
stone house generally showed a sign of wealth.
The lintel above the door
indicated that the owner, Henry Howser, was a stone mason and built the house
in 1803.
It was cool to also see a
fence that a Boy Scout troop built a few weeks ago for a service project.
There is another hidden
place nearby– the Howser
Family Cemetery.
Bill spotted it on a knoll 200 yards or so from the house.
A STRUCTURE IN THE WOODS
Another hidden discovery
came about when Bill noticed an unidentified structure on a detailed
topographical map given to the park by an orienteering group. On one of his
morning walks to work, he detoured through the woods to find it. It’s not far
from the battlefield trail and the backcountry trail, but hidden from both.
It’s the old pump house that used to provide water to the park. Not an exciting discovery, but it was interesting to figure it out.
SIGN
Then we had another
discovery. Bill told the maintenance worker, Andy, that he cleaned all the
signs. Andy grinned and said Bill missed a sign. Decades ago, a park trail went
by this sign. Not any more!
It was a bit of a bushwhack,
but we found it.
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an abandoned sign about
Winston’s militia
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HIGHEST POINT
We passed the Employees Only
sign and trudged up the gravel road to the water tower. A ranger told us this
is the highest point in the park. On this foggy morning, we saw the hazy views
between the trees.
OUR CAMPSITE
The last spot we will
mention is the RV pad for our trailer, since it is hidden from park visitors.
The park has two 1950s-era houses and one RV pad. A law enforcement ranger,
Caleb, and his wife live in the left house and the other house has been empty
except two weeks when another volunteer, Bob, stayed there.
This hidden spot was our
home for three months.
