John Adam Squirrell, a grasp mason who gathered “native stone” in excessive elevation Ice Age “quarries” died not too long ago on the age of 85. He was a tremendous man I used to be at all times proud to have as a good friend.
Even in case you have no idea a lot about stonework, you possibly can simply study to identify the distinctive “sample work” created by a protracted line of distinguished Cherokee masons. It’s a craft typically handed down from father to son that’s without delay backbreaking and artistically stunning.
On this interview I did with John some years in the past, he informed me that when he was a boy, he would typically wade the Oconaluftee River from the household house at Yellow Hill on the reservation to hold lunch to his father, Shephard Squirrell, who was doing stonework on the Boundary Tree Inn close to the Nice Smoky Mountains Park boundary.
Shepard Squirrell at all times made his dwelling as a mason, and in time his 4 sons — Josh, John, George and Robert — took up the commerce. First he’d allow them to “combine a little bit mud” then sometimes, lay a “plug” of stone, till they caught on.
John labored together with his brothers till he determined to make a go of it on his personal. Yr round, besides when the temperature dipped beneath freezing, he put up veneer, lower stone partitions, chimneys and fireplaces, laid patios, walks, and restraining partitions all through Western North Carolina.
In a dialogue with considered one of his former employers, the person remarked that he was lucky to get John Squirrell to work on his Massive Ridge house. “He’d completed different work within the Cashiers space and I noticed what he may do. Lots of people can lay stone however this man was an engineer in addition to a real artisan. The extra you studied the rock he laid, the extra you got here to understand the clear, distinctive strains and attention-grabbing patterns.”
John was not very a lot inclined to debate the finer factors of his commerce aside from one thing like: “I would like the spacing to be clear and deep. They’re pointed and raked over an inch deep so the native rock will stand out. Generally I lower a bit to suit, with a hammer, however I by no means scratch or mark the pure floor in any approach.”
He believed that every mason’s work is totally different — type of like a fingerprint or signature — and that he may readily determine any of his brothers work upon sight with out having to be informed which one had laid it. He disliked working with any stone besides what he referred to as “native” or “actual” stone. Simply the place and the way he obtained “native” stone is a narrative unto itself.
In ravines on the excessive elevation north-facing slopes of the Southern Appalachians, there are areas geologists name “block fields” or “block streams” that had been created over the past Ice Age 15,000-20,000 years in the past. There have been no glaciers this far south within the mountains, however the glaciers to the north did lead to longer, cooler cycles of rain and snow that induced “peri-glacial” (close to glacial) results right here.
Snow packs, periodic freezing at temperatures far colder than we expertise now, and thawing on north-faces (which the Cherokees name the “darkish facet”) wedged free enormous blocks and boulders — some 25-feet or extra in diameter — that by the eons have “flowed” down the ravines like “block streams” and gathered in huge “block fields”.
Squirrell discovered his supply of “native” stone whereas logging within the excessive Plott Balsams within the Soco portion of the reservation. To get on the “block discipline” he needed to construct a street. To get the stone out of the world he used a one-ton truck. However first he needed to get the stone to the truck. Generally he and a helper or two needed to roll the boulders 50 or extra instances to get them to the truck. They broke up the stones too heavy to budge into sections. There was no lifting gear so the rock was put onto the truck by manpower.
He spent a minimum of a few days every week harvesting stone within the excessive Balsams for the roles he was engaged on. His employers didn’t go to his Ice Age quarry to see him rolling, slicing and lifting boulders and couldn’t recognize that finish of the enterprise, however they had been getting “actual” stone in each sense of the phrase. On the job web site, the stone was placed on a desk and lower into veneer going through blocks of lower stone. Then utilizing the distinctive “two to at least one” sample during which the Cherokee specialize, he would go to work.
Squirrell was an avid runner and turned up at many of the street races within the space. He was in all probability one of many few runners who educated after a day of “actual” work.
“Generally I’m drained and don’t really feel like operating, however it’s shocking that more often than not it makes me really feel higher,” he stated. “I prefer to work and pay my payments and I can’t work inside. I would like room to breathe. I’ll get outdated, however this stonework by no means will get outdated to me.”
And so now we have misplaced a person of energy and goodness. However his legacy as a superior stonemason and artisan lives on.
George Ellison is a naturalist and author. His spouse, Elizabeth Ellison, is a watercolor artist and papermaker who has a gallery-studio in Bryson Metropolis. Contact them at data@georgeellison.com or data@elizabethellisonwatercolors.com or write to P.O. Field 1262, Bryson Metropolis, NC 28713.