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Filling a Need
Isolated mountain community with dry wells inspires vast volunteer effort at Christmastime
Journal Photo by Monte Mitchell
Danny McGuire checks on Hilda Dugger and her temporary cistern. McGuire led a team of volunteers to build the cistern after Dugger’s well ran dry.
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Published: December 25, 2008
MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. - It looked like it was going to be a dry Christmas in the mountain homes of the Big Dry Run community in western Tennessee.
The economy had gone bust, and a long drought had choked out wells and springs, leaving many people without water.
Hilda Dugger, 83, a widow, and her adopted daughter, Vickie Thomas, had been carefully conserving water during the day so that they could eke a quart out of their dying well at night.
They didn't have enough water to take a shower. They don't own a car, and they couldn't walk the miles to town to get bottled water.
It sounds like a story from the 1930s, when people could count on their neighbors to help them through hard times. But it seems that even today, people can depend on their neighbors.
Strangers from two states are rallying to help Dugger, Thomas and other people in more than 30 homes whose wells or springs are drying up because of the drought in the mountain hollows of Johnson County, Tenn. The area is about two miles from the North Carolina-Tennessee line, although a mountain range blocks the most direct route. It's about a 20-mile drive from Boone.
Thelma Taylor of Boone is one of more than 10 Watauga County residents who heard about the problem on a local radio station and made a donation.
"I heard them say it was children being affected by it and older people," she said. "It was Christmas. I just thought that was a very worthy cause, and my heart goes out to them."
Neighbors in the two states have raised $14,000 so far. The largest single donation has been $10,000 from Mountain Electric Cooperative, the electric utility that serves northeast Tennessee, and Western North Carolina, including Avery County. Building-supply companies in Avery and Watauga counties have donated supplies. A church in Deep Gap made a donation.
While a permanent solution might require years and vast amounts of money in grants from Nashville or Washington, ingenious neighbors have used donations and volunteer labor to build temporary cisterns.
They've built insulated wooden sheds that house a water tank, a heater and a water pump. The water tanks range from 300 gallons to 550 gallons. When it was 15 degrees this week at Dugger's home, the heater kept the water and pump from freezing, and the pump sent the water into the same water line that would have taken the water from the well to the house. The Dry Run Volunteer Fire Department is filling the tanks and collecting bottled water for drinking.
Danny McGuire led the volunteers, who started work on Thanksgiving Day. They have spent the holiday season raising money and working. So far they have built six of the temporary cisterns like the one at Dugger's home.
Although none of the water was hooked up that day, McGuire said he started the work on Thanksgiving Day to give people hope that things would get better.
"I think it did give them something to look forward to and be thankful for," he said.
McGuire stopped in this week to check on Dugger and her daughter.
"There's not enough praise we can give to the Lord and to this guy," Dugger said, hugging McGuire.
Dugger's voice still has the trace of Austria she brought with her when she arrived in the United States on Christmas Eve in 1947 as the new bride of Lee Roy Dugger, a soldier coming home. She spent years working in Shuford Mills in Hickory with her husband, and doing other work.
She moved back to his home area years ago, but didn't count on her well running dry when she was an elderly widow on a fixed income.
"I just don't know what we would have done without you," she told McGuire. Dugger and her daughter still conserve water, but they say that the new system delivers water just like the well did when it was still good.
Dugger refused McGuire's offers of more bottled water, because, she says, other families need it more.
It was the plight of Dugger and her daughter that spurred McGuire to action.
Margie Collins, a former Johnson County resident whose mother's well is affected, collected a batch of testimonial letters from people as part of a package to request grant money.
McGuire's well was one that had run dry, but his work as a leader of construction framing crews had provided him the money he needed to drill a new, deeper well. When he read the letter that Dugger's daughter had written, about how hard it was for them without water, it made him realize that some people needed help right now.
"It wouldn't be right to my neighbors and community to give up on them just because I got myself took care of," McGuire said. "That ain't the way the good Lord wants it to be, you know what I mean?"
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.
Want to Help
The cost of each heated shelter, holding tank and water pump is estimated at $800 to $1,200, depending on the size. The reduced price is possible because of donations of labor and many materials. The holding tanks are being filled by the Dry Run Volunteer Fire Department, which is also collecting bottled water for drinking and cooking. The project is for the elderly, handicapped or low-income families. Donations may be made by check payable to the Dry Run VFD Water Project, and mailed to the department at 5646 Big Dry Run Road, Butler, TN 37640.
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