LAKE BLUE RIDGE MARINA, INC. Information

Newspaper accounts and the memories of local figures provide some information about the Lake Blue Ridge Civic Association in its early years. A recent article in the News Observer (November 5, 2014) describes the activities of Coe Hamling in specific reference to the Lake Blue Ridge Civic Association (LBRCA). It appears that LBRCA was probably not an official corporation, but rather, a more informal collection of people who were interested in Lake Blue Ridge and its water levels. Coe died in October of 2014 at age 96, and News Observer Publisher Glenn Harbinson remembers Coe being very active in the 1970s and early 1980s with efforts to keep Lake Blue Ridge water level as full as possible. The News Observer reports that Coe organized 20 teams for a "Mud Bowl" to make sculptures from the mud at Morganton Point to "draw attention to the low water level in the lake. At a recent LBRCA Board meeting, one of the Board members reported that Coe actually dumped a bucket of mud on a TVA executive's desk to make the same point! Whether Coe's and LBRCA's efforts to raise lake levels were a substantial factor in getting water levels raised, it is important to know that the average winter water level in Lake Blue Ridge has risen from 1640 feet elevation in 1970, to 1654 feet in 1990, and 1668 feet today. Thus, it appears appropriate to thank Coe Hamling posthumously for his efforts, along with other participants in the early LBRCA years. News Observer Glenn Harbinson (personal communication, November 24, 2014) recalls that "Edna Kyle of McCaysville was President of LBRCA around 1991-92 and the group was making a big push against lake drawdowns then. Glen has a couple of hand-written notes from Coe during this time, and according to Glenn, Coe "was also concentrating on the Adopt-a-Highway program by then. He was still VP of the LBRCA. Chamber of Commerce President Jan Hackett, who has been in the Blue Ridge area for about 15 years remembers his involvement with LBRCA, so he apparently continued his involvement with LBRCA ...