Over two weeks in July, a group of students from the LBJ Job Corps center in Franklin drove up to Wayah Bald to beautify and preserve the tower and the Wilson Lick Ranger Station. The students learned masonry skills while cleaning one of the area’s premiere attractions.
Working through the nonprofit HistoriCorps and the Nantahala National Forest, the LBJ Job Corps students removed graffiti from the interior masonry walls of the Wayah Bald tower and repointed the upper tower and stairs where mortar is missing.
Student Antanneya Belton said they started at the tower by stripping off the graffiti from the walls inside, leaving a stripper on overnight and scrubbing it off.
“Usually the process would be like putting on like 15 different strippers,” Belton said. “We pretty much got all of it off.”
Student Amenia Neal said they had to follow all the precautions protecting themselves from the chemicals, including body suits, gloves and face shields.
Neal said she enjoyed seeing the different types of stones and the color pop after applying the thinner.
Kevon McMillan talked about filling in the cracks with the motor on top of the tower, including chipping some of the smaller cracks so they could fill it in better.
Other tower projects included scrubbing hard dirt from the interior floor and sweeping the stairs.
The students said some days the fog was so thick they couldn’t see the tower from more than a few feet away. Any time the view opened up, out came the smartphones.
At the Wilson Lick Ranger Station a few miles down the dirt and gravel road, students used pick axes, rocks and other tools to finish repointing the chimney.
According to Erriyonna Neal, the crew used mortar to fill in the cracks in the rock chimney. The group’s instructor, William Gibbs, replaced some of the stones at the top of the chimney. Erriyonna Neal talked about using “yogurt” and dirty water to make the stone look more historic.
Along with repointing, the crews removed much of the ivy that had covered the chimney.
At the ranger station, there is no public bathroom, so one of the group’s side projects was to make a temporary bathroom.
The students said it wasn’t an easy job, but it was rewarding.
“This is one of our first projects that we’ve had working outside of the center,” said Erriyonna Neal. “It’s a very tedious project. I’m gonna say you got to be very patient. You got to be very careful. You got to pay attention to detail.”
The tower and ranger station remained open during the work, and Amenia Neal said the visitors were curious and friendly about their work.
“They were very grateful for what we were doing,” Amenia Neal said.
Gibbs said this experience has opened new possibilities for the students.
“It’s a male dominated field,” Gibbs said of masonry. “But as you can see I got females up here as well as my man to keep on doing the work. Break the cycle, break the cycle. Don’t be scared females.”
Gibbs said some of the tools and procedures for stone masonry haven’t changed over the last 100 years, so it’s a different way of thinking.
Keith Bowers, liaison specialist with the Job Corps and U.S. Forest Service, said he appreciates the students working on the project.
“I really hope that all these students gained a true appreciation for historical preservation because as Mr. Gibbs was talking about, it’s a great opportunity for them to be able to move forward.”
The students appreciated Gibbs and Bowers guiding them and sharing their passion.
“Job Corps has so many opportunities for you, other than this, to get money, learn different things and better yourself as a person,” Belton said.