Katey Schultz, Lost Crossings

Our own Bakersville author Katey Schultz whose name you might find familiar by reading her beautifully written articles on ceramic artists in Ceramics Monthly and Art and Perception to name a couple, is seeking donations for her Lost Crossings project. She explored the 13 swinging bridges here in Mitchell and Yancey counties and took photographer, Shane Darwent with her. To read some of her findings, check out her link to see more about her writing project. She's 80% on the way to reach her goal in raising the funds needed to help her print and publish her work.

Excerpt from Lost Crossings:

...The idea came slowly at first, like snowmelt filtering down a mountain stream. I'd been told the swinging footbridges are maintained by North Carolina's Department of Transportation (DOT). I also learned that Mitchell and Yancey Counties are home to 13 of the state's 23 remaining footbridges. Nowadays, many of these footbridges lead to a dead end: private property, a cemetery, or an old train depot.

I made a pilgrimage to the Honeycutt Bridge (223W) and it was there, where Bad Creek flows into Rock Creek, that this notion of Lost Crossings came to fruition. Anchored between Highway 226 and a steep hillside, the space begged for interpretation. I could almost hear the stories being told, memories from a way of life nearly forgotten.

Yet it wasn't enough to imagine these stories. I stood above a confluence of pure mountain waters and understood it would be necessary to trace the story of each footbridge back to its source. Bad Creek had come a long way down the mountain. The families and buildings around these footbridges had come a long way, too...

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