LIVING HISTORY
Some trout at Tellico are raised
to achieve an orangish color. The view from Debra’s house at Tellico.
Robbie had never told his dad he had hidden the sewing
machine, so Bud considered it lost or taken when he went by
to check on it again. But years later, when the subject came up,
Robbie told his dad he had hidden it. It took Robbie a while to
find where he had hidden it, but he eventually located it in a
palmetto brush and brought it back to the ranch headquarters,
where it is displayed in the ranch museum today.
BOUND FOR CAROLINA
After having visited many sites on the Treasure Coast for
the Cow Creek Chronicles, I felt I needed to visit North Carolina
and see Kathy and Debra in person. My parents and siblings
and I had visited Jo Ann at Tellico several times in my youth,
including one overnight stay.
My wife, Gretchen, and I make an annual trek to New
England, so on our way up last year we stopped in Franklin
to visit Debra and Kathy, whom I hadn’t seen in 50 years.
Debra drives up to our hotel in her Kia. After hugs, we load
up in the car and head for Tellico, with me riding shotgun,
and Gretchen and Kathy in the back seat. Conversation flows
easily as if we’d been keeping up with each other for years.
We travel down a dusty road to arrive at the 1870 Tellico
farmhouse that once served as a post office and general store
and was lovingly restored by Jo Ann. The Tellico farmhouse
was also the place where for more than a decade Jo Ann, with
the help of Debra, raised Kathy’s four daughters during a
time of Kathy’s drug use.
Kathy eventually moved to North Carolina and reconciled
with her family and healed the strained relations with them.
During our ride, it’s apparent that Debra and Kathy remain
close despite their differences and experiences. Sometimes
when addressing Kathy, Debra calls her Lou, after her middle
name. Born Kathryn Louise Sloan, Kathy acquired her middle
name in honor of her great grandmother, Annie Louise.
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“Simpatico,” Kathy says, describing her relationship with
Debra in recent years.
Where once the line of Frank Raulerson was at risk of
extinction, with Jo Ann the only survivor, Kathy made the
family flourish. Kathy’s daughters gave Jo Ann 10 greatgrandchildren
and 8 great-great grandchildren.
After walking around the Tellico farmhouse, Kathy and
Debra take us over to an old white oak tree said to be the
largest in North Carolina and where Cherokee were reported
to meet for counsel. Kathy encourages us to get close to the
trunk where we can get the best view looking up to the tree.
She sits down on a rock slab, as if taking the energy from
it. She talks about the crucifix that can be seen in a white
dogwood flower. It makes me think of how, spiritually, she’s
connected to the land, a connection that probably began at
Cow Creek.
We drive down along the creek to see the raceways, where
trout of various sizes are kept in concrete containment areas,
with the largest fish at the top of the creek and the smaller
ones at the bottom. It’s an impressive operation. Most of the
fish are sold to stock recreational ponds in the region, but the
operation also has a small pond at the bottom of the property
where tourists can fish for a fee during summer.
Debra started the fee-fishing when she managed the farm
as a way to bring in extra revenue. Debra, who counsels
entrepreneurs such as aqua farmers in her job with the North
Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,
talks about how farmers can often improve their revenue
through agri-tourism.
It makes me realize that her own experiences — as manager
of the trout farm and watching her father’s various ventures
fizzle out — help her in her job of counseling farmers.
She says her father had vision but lacked the business skills
needed to make an enterprise successful. The availability of
GRETCHEN ENNS
Cow Creek Chronicles author Gregory Enns with Kathy
Sloan Blanton, left, and Debra Sloan during a visit to Tellico
last April. The Tellico farmhouse is in the background. The raceways at Tellico hold various sizes of trout.
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