[gentle orchestral fanfare]
♪
[resonant strings lead
building orchestration]
(male narrator)
Welcome to Our State ,
a production of UNC-TV
in association
with Our State magazine--
for over 80 years,
bringing readers
the wonders of North Carolina.
On this edition...
learn how a livestock
judging pavilion
became one
of the most important
architectural achievements
in our state...
[rich score emerges]
the wild horses of Corolla
face an uncertain future...
and we'll meet
the most patriotic man
in North Carolina.
♪
[gentle piano melody]
(male announcer)
Since 1872,
BB&T has been supporting
the people and communities
of North Carolina.
From our small-town roots
to the banking network
you see today,
we've always been here
for all our clients,
stretching from Manteo...
to Murphy.
We're proud of our heritage
as the oldest bank
in North Carolina,
and we're very proud
to provide funding
for Our State .
♪
Quality public television
is made possible
through the financial
contributions
of viewers like you,
who invite you to join them
in supporting UNC-TV.
[pulsing electric guitar tones
lead electronic droning]
♪
(narrator)
In the late 1940s,
a livestock-judging pavilion
was designed
for the North Carolina
State Fairgrounds,
a livestock-judging pavilion
that turned out like nothing
anybody'd ever seen,
thanks to the vision
of this man,
Matthew Nowicki,
who came here from Poland
to head the new
architecture department
at North Carolina
State College.
He imagined a public space
on a symphonic scale.
(man)
It is such a powerful gesture,
and I don't know
of a single space in the world
where the nature of the space
is so beautifully expressed.
(narrator)
It's located
right in the middle
of the fairgrounds,
but even so,
this architectural wonder
readily blends
into the background
amid the cacophony
of a full-blown state fair.
Thousands pass it by,
not noticing
its groundbreaking
elliptical shape,
knowing nothing about
the engineering innovations
or how modern architecture
came to Tobacco Road.
♪
Good morning, Bill;
its a pleasure
to see you.
Good to see you;
glad to have you back
to Dorton Arena.
(narrator)
NC State facility engineer
Bill McClure
and Wayne Place,
professor of architecture
in the College of Design,
give us a tour
of one of our state's
most architecturally important
and influential buildings,
the Dorton Arena.
(Place)
Sometimes people will walk
into a space like this,
and then they walk away,
and they
don't even quite realize
what they've been in.
They come here
focused so much
on whatever
their business is,
and they don't
take time to look up.
(narrator)
"Up" is where
it all comes together:
design, materials,
construction,
each married to the other,
working together
in a still and silent dance
that combines look
with function
to a perfection
that's almost beyond words...
just as Nowicki envisioned.
Tragically,
he died in a plane crash
and never saw the project
completed,
but his drawings
captured the vision,
and that vision
had to be realized.
His sweeping lines
were converted
to precise measurements
by architect
William Henley Deitrick.
(Place)
And I think what's remarkable
is that they're able
to create
the spatial richness
and the complex form
out of such simple elements.
(narrator)
Elements that combine
to create a design
like no other in the world.
(Place)
This is not a building
where you establish
a set of columns
on a very regular
rectangular grid.
This is a building
where absolutely every
foundation was a challenge
and every column had to be
very carefully located.
They were pushing the envelope
in ways that are
almost unimaginable.
(narrator)
Deitrick worked
with Muirhead Construction
to bring
Nowicki's vision to life,
including a roof
with a 300-foot free span
and no interior columns,
supported
by high-strength steel cables
draped across the span,
inspired by the cables
supporting San Francisco's
Golden Gate Bridge.
(Place)
So these cables,
which are to resist gravity,
are very poor
in terms of resisting wind.
In fact, they put up
no resistance to wind,
so this roof
would literally kite
under that kind
of wind suction.
So to hold the roof down,
we have a series of cables
running in this direction.
We sometimes call them
the wind-resisting cables,
and they're there
to keep the roof
from flying away, basically.
They have to be
countertensioned
so that no flutter
develops in the roof
under any kind
of wind disturbance.
And Nowicki needed a structure
around the boundary
that would be
comparably efficient
in resisting gravity forces,
and so just as he
chose a parabola
for the shape of these, uh,
gravity cables,
he also used
a compression arch
around the boundary
which is parabolic
in shape also.
(narrator)
The two arches
that support the roof
are key to the way
this building works,
architecturally
and visually.
(Place)
The history of architecture
during World War II
placed a lot of emphasis
on what we call
fascist architecture.
There was a deliberate attempt
to obscure
the purpose of buildings
and to hide what went on
inside of buildings.
One of the ways
that modern architecture
expressed its optimism
and its desire
to get away from that
was to be as open as possible.
Buildings expressing
their purpose
was a huge part of what
modern architecture was about,
and certainly,
Matthew Nowicki
embraced that philosophy
and that idea
and brought it
to an amazing expression
in this building.
[warm orchestration]
♪
(narrator)
Dorton Arena
is an architectural marvel,
the first building
in the world to have a roof
supported
with suspended steel cables.
(Place, voice-over)
OK
, so that's Bill over there.
He's 300 feet
fr
om where we are right now,
and that's the length
of a football field,
and there are no columns
between here and there,
just these cables
that are draped
across the space.
(narrator)
Gravity and the innovative
cable system
keep the arches
in constant tension.
♪
Hidden underground
are abutments
crucial to maintaining
Dorton Arena's
structural integrity.
(Place)
So this is the pit
at the end of this
long, concrete footing.
It looks like
these devices are designed
to tension that cable,
and I guess,
if these cables
weren't running underground
from the base of one arch
to the other, under load,
these arches would
tend to splay apart
and the building
would collapse.
(McClure)
This what holds
the buildin' up.
♪
(narrator)
This building
made a progressive
political statement
to the world
about North Carolina
during the "anything's
possible" years
following World War II.
(Place)
And sometimes, the politicians
are the visionaries.
Somebody had to go along
with approving this building,
and it took
a certain amount of courage
to make a commitment
to something like this
because it was so unusual.
(McClure)
Politically,
you gotta take a look
at Governor Kerr Scott.
His campaign
was to move forward.
We have Dr. Dorton,
who's manager
of the North Carolina
State Fair,
who was wanting
the North Carolina State Fair
to be self-supporting.
What did we have
in the central part
of North Carolina
as a entertainment venue?
The answer's nothin'.
When Dr. Dorton realized
the Livestock
Judging Pavilion,
I think that Dr. Dorton had it
in the back of their mind
that this would be
an entertainment venue too.
So politically,
the stage was ripe
to get the funding
to build this building.
(narrator)
Over the decades,
the arena has hosted
everything from tractor pulls
to ice hockey,
from big-time concerts to...
livestock judging.
[horn blares]
Although Dorton is no longer
the only venue in town,
this National Historic
Civil Engineering Landmark
remains open for business
in a big way.
People never forget
the impression it makes
the first time they see it.
(Place)
This building is so beautiful
and so remarkable
that we have people
from around the world
that come to Raleigh,
North Carolina,
just to see this building.
Whenever I have visitors
from out of town,
this is the one place
I make sure that I take them.
And they are always blown away
by the experience
of being inside
of this building.
(McClure)
And we sit down,
and then they can begin to
conceive what this building is
'cause it takes a minute
or two for it to sink in
what exactly
you're lookin' at.
(narrator)
That's especially true
considering that Dorton Arena
almost didn't get built!
Story says that if dirt
wasn't turned on the site
by a certain time
on a certain date,
the project wouldn't go.
Enter one contractor,
one shovel,
and a highway patrolman
to get 'em there,
courtesy
of Governor Kerr Scott.
(McClure)
He got a shovel, dug a hole,
mixed up some cement
in the wheelbarrow,
and poured it in a hole.
Turned to the highway
patrolman, says,
"I have started construction
on Dorton Arena."
Highway patrolman
thanked him real big
and said he would go back
and report to the governor
that construction had started.
(narrator)
Shortly thereafter,
President Truman
ordered a moratorium
on all construction projects.
The money and resources
were needed
to fight the Korean War,
but luckily
for North Carolina,
projects already underway
were exempt.
(McClure)
If that hole
wouldn'ta been dug
and that concrete
wouldn'ta been poured,
Dorton Arena
may not have been started.
The fundin' for Dorton Arena
mighta gone other places,
and that little window of time
that everything came together
with the state
of North Carolina,
the Department of Agriculture,
and North Carolina
State University--
the window mighta closed.
This building
might not be here.
(Place)
This is like a gem
that just was created
in a flash, uh,
a moment in history.
We could learn a lesson
from this building
about what enthusiasm
and optimism can do
when people really embrace it.
[orchestration surges]
[electric guitar leads]
♪
[guitar leads resonant melody]
♪
(narrator)
Some things never change
on North Carolina's
Outer Banks.
Day after day,
breakers kiss the shore.
Ceaseless tides
irrigate the marshland
and then creep back
out to sea.
[surf noise]
And here and there
along the 175 mile or so
stretch of barrier islands
from Ocracoke north
to the Virginia border,
wild horses may be glimpsed
grazing contentedly
among the dunes.
They're not as widely
dispersed over the banks
as they once were,
descendents
of equine passengers
on Spanish sailing ships
that ran aground
in the 17th century.
(woman)
There are 2,000 shipwrecks
on the bottom
of the Atlantic Ocean
up and down the Outer Banks,
so, although there's no record,
it stands to reason
that some horses
were probably able
to survive shipwrecks
and swim ashore.
And some horses
were simply left behind
when colonies failed.
A nonprofit
has a mission,
and it benefits the greater
good of the community.
(narrator)
Karen McCalpin
is a colonist of sorts,
a transplant to the Outer
Banks from Pennsylvania,
lured here by the prospect
of her dream job,
managing the northernmost
population of wild horses
as director of the nonprofit
Corolla Wild Horse Fund.
(McCalpin)
They've been here
almost five centuries,
and the United States
Fish and Wildlife Service
defines them as nonnative,
feral, invasive pest animals.
I'm not native, but, uh,
I don't know how long you
have to live here to be native.
It seems like five centuries
oughta be plenty of time.
They're just amazing horses.
(narrator)
Amazing, also, is a good word
to apply to early
preservation efforts.
(McCalpin)
The organization
was actually formed in 1989
as a completely all-volunteer,
grassroots organization
by a group of residents
who had becomed concerned
as more and more horses
began to get hit on 12,
as development, uh, increased
between Duck and Corolla,
and in 1989, a stallion
by the name of Star,
with whom everyone
was familiar, was killed,
and that was the last straw,
so to speak.
(narrator)
The herd count in the area
threatened by development,
here counted by helicopter,
had diminished to about 20
by the early '90s.
By the time Karen arrived
on the scene in 2006,
the horse population
was on the rise
with 7,500-plus
protected acres to roam,
including portions
of the Currituck National
Wildlife Refuge
and some low-impact
residential developments.
(McCalpin)
The horses really have
five main habitat areas.
They eat the coarse grasses
that grow on the dunes
and the sea oats.
Behind the dunes,
there's dry meadow,
wet meadow,
there's a maritime forest
that runs up the middle
of the island.
That's basically
its highest point.
You'll find them there
in the winter eating acorns,
like the deer.
And then, of course, along
the sound there's the marshes.
We have the area,
for our purposes,
divided into four zones, and,
uh, we know which harems ,
and a harem
is a dominant stallion
and generally
one to four mares--
some have more,
some have less.
We know which harems we're
going to find in which zones,
and so they move freely
within that zone.
They rarely move out of that
area because if they do,
they risk losing their mares
to the dominant stallion
in the next zone.
(narrator)
It may seem unusual
to see wild horses
grazing around houses,
but that's the nature
of things here,
where civilization
and history meet
in a uniquely
accommodating way.
(McCalpin)
One of the things
that we spend
a tremendous amount of time
and effort doing is educating,
both on the beach
and behind the dunes,
because the wild horses here
are tolerant of humans.
That's why you can drive by
one of them grazing
and they probably
won't even look up at you.
But they can be standing
along the shoreline
and looking very peaceful,
and people start to gather
around and take pictures,
and suddenly a rival stallion
appears on the dune line
and comes down--
thundering down the dune.
Now you're in the middle of
a very brutal, vicious fight.
They will not care whether
you're standing there or not--
your vehicle's there,
your child's there,
your chair's there.
(narrator)
The most enduring threat
to the Corolla horses,
however, is neither
commercial encroachment
nor the wild horse tourism
that has blossomed
in the area.
It's genetic.
The gene pool is collapsing
due to inbreeding.
Dr. Gus Cothran
of Texas A&M University
is the leading expert
on wild horse genetics.
(McCalpin)
In 2007, we pulled, uh,
DNA samples
with remotely delivered darts,
and in 2008,
the results came back
that we had one of the lowest
levels of genetic diversity
of any wild herd anywhere.
(Cothran)
So that means that they
have lost genetic diversity,
relative to other
horse populations.
And that's likely due,
or almost certainly due,
to the very small
population size
that existed at one time.
Small population size
means inbreeding,
and inbreeding means
loss of genetic variability.
(narrator)
Mitochondrial DNA research
in Dr. Cothran's lab
provided clues to the Corolla
horses' ancestry.
(Cothran)
All of the barrier island
horse populations,
which are now isolated
from each other,
show closer relationship
to each other
than they do to anything else,
suggesting
some common ancestry.
But by looking
at particular variants
that we know
where they are most common
and where they
most likely come from,
we have clear evidence
that the, uh, Banker horses
have some old Spanish blood
in them.
And that could only
have come from something
probably three
to four hundred years ago.
(narrator)
There are three zones
of wild horses
along North Carolina's
Outer Banks:
at Corolla, Shackleford Banks,
and Ocracoke.
(Cothran)
They're all related
to each other,
but they're all different
from each other as well.
And so a small number
of exchanges
from Shackleford, for example,
will boost the Corolla
variability very quickly.
The new genes will circulate
throughout the population
over a few generations.
(narrator)
The idea here
is to keep the population
at an optimal level,
both to maintain diversity
and to develop
and manage a population
similar to that
established in legislation
that protects
the Shackleford ponies,
but that proposal is mired
in congressional limbo.
(McCalpin)
And that is why
we've been working so hard
on the Corolla Wild Horses
Protection Act.
That languages mirrors
the Shackleford Banks Act,
asks for a minimum herd size
of 120 to 130,
with never less than 110,
with the added caveat
that we be able to bring, uh,
a limited amount of mares
from Shackleford,
and that is the critical step
that will add new genes
to our dying gene pool,
and it is dying,
and they will be gone
in a few generations
if we don't act quickly.
(narrator)
Meantime, the good work
of Corolla Wild Horse Fund
continues.
Meet Amadeo,
a 16-year-old stallion
with an amazing story.
(McCalpin)
Amadeo's name is, uh,
the Spanish, uh, derivative
for "blessed by God."
He was in a fight
with a much younger stallion.
He was already
missing his right eye,
and horses
are fight-or-flight animals,
and because
he was losing the fight,
his only choice was to flee.
But his good eye had been
damaged in the fight,
and so he was disoriented.
He ran into the ocean.
It was on a day
we had 10-foot waves
and 30-mile-an-hour winds.
(narrator)
Amadeo was pulled
over a mile by the riptide.
He was finally rescued,
but the trauma
left him completely blind.
[horn accompanies
delicate piano composition]
♪
Volunteer Mike Gaulding
is a true horse whisperer.
Amadeo needs to be moved
to a new facility,
and Mike must earn his trust.
♪
It's fine;
you're OK.
You're all right.
♪
Calm down.
[whispering]
That's a good boy.
Nobody's gonna
hurt you.
♪
(narrator)
All wild horses
destined for adoption
must be trained
to adapt to humans
and are,
thanks to an affiliation
with the Equine
Technology program
of Martin Community College.
So the Corolla ponies
come to us
when they've been
removed from the beach
or off of the premises.
We basically domesticate them.
They've not been touched;
they've not been haltered.
They've never been in a stall
before at that point.
So they come to us, um,
basically with no education,
and it's pretty appropriate
that they come to college
because by the time
they leave here,
they--they have, uh,
their associates degree.
He's learned how to lunge.
He's learned
how to line drive.
He also has been ridden
for the first time,
and he has, um,
he's done very, very well.
He really likes
the domesticated life,
and you can see he's--
he's quite chubby.
[gentle guitar melody]
(narrator)
For something like 400 years
of time and tide,
these Banker horses--
call 'em ponies if you want;
they don't care--
they've been
nourishing themselves
on sea oats and wild grasses
around the dunes,
in the maritime forest,
and sound-side marshes.
We put 'em there,
and now it's our collective
responsibility
to make sure their descendents
not only survive but thrive--
a whole lot of wonder...
and a little bit of wild
on the thin edge of our coast.
♪
[horn leads
solemn orchestration]
♪
(man)
I never knew they had a name
for collecting flags.
I just said I collected flags.
I was doing a flag program
up in Shelby one time,
and the pastor said,
"Well, we have somebody
different with us today,
we have a vexillologist,"
and I thought,
"Good, I'm not
doin' the program."
Then I found out
a vexillologist was
a person who collects flags.
I tried countin'
when I was up in the attic.
I've just got up to too many.
I must have
a little over a hundred.
I felt that I wasn't
given these flags
just to let 'em sit
packed away in a cedar chest.
Take it and use it;
that's what they're for,
try and promote our country,
and that's basically
what I'm doing.
This is known
as the Taunton flag--
Taunton, Massachusetts,
which was the place where
the British had a stronghold.
Colonists met
under a big oak tree
to show their defiance
of the British rule, uh.
The British
cut down the tree,
figurin' that would
stop their meetings.
They took the British flag
and wrote liberty and union
across the bottom,
stuck it up on a pole,
and kept right on
with their opposition
to the British government.
As our country grew,
this flag became very popular,
and it's called
the Grand Union flag.
George Washington was
inaugurated under this flag.
If he was standing up
in the boat,
crossing the Delaware,
he shoulda been
carrying this flag,
not the Betsy Ross flag.
It paid tribute
to the two countries
being formed
into one grand union.
♪
Congress proposed and approved
an amendment, which said,
The flag of the United States
shall be 13 stripes,
alternating
red and white,
and 13 stars,
white on a blue field,
representing
a new constellation.
And this flag was called
the Betsy Ross flag.
It's the only flag
in the world that can change.
As we add another state,
we put another star.
This is the flag
that Frances Scott Key saw
when he was on the ship
in Baltimore Harbor.
He was just
an apprentice lawyer,
and he was assigned
the task of negotiating
for the exchange
of prisoners.
The negotiations broke down,
so he had to stay
on the ship overnight.
Got up early in the morning,
went up on the deck
to look at Fort McHenry,
and he saw the flag
was still flying.
And he was so impressed
that he wrote, like, a poem,
and it was called
Th
e Star-Spangled Banner ,
He designated the flag
as The Star-Spangled Banner.
Our flag is the only flag
in the world
that is the subject
of its national anthem.
[horns and strings playing
"The Star-Spangled Banner"]
♪
I tried not to collect
other things,
but I've been given everything
from beach towels to flags
and everything
you can think of in between
that has a flag on it.
I don't know how many coasters
we have around the house...
and pictures on the wall.
The relatives see
things with a flag,
so they send them to me,
and every room
seems to have a flag in it.
[sustained string chord]
♪
It's a very old flag.
It's from 1877 to 1880,
and it has
38 stars.
Originally,
they were just changing
when a state
came in the union,
but it became so cumbersome
because states would come in
and two weeks later, everybody
wanted their star in the flag,
so they decided to make a rule
that the flag would not change
until the Fourth of July
after a state joined the union,
and that's the way
it still is.
♪
A big part
of our country's history
was made and recorded
under this flag.
This flag is
the longest-flying flag.
It lasted
for 47 years.
It was the flag
of World War II
and World War I.
That was when
I was in high school,
and they put a flag at
Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima.
When that happened,
we were really very proud
they put that flag up there.
♪
We have a country that we
should be very proud of.
I'm just happy if I can go
and talk about our flag.
♪
I'm gonna keep
Gastonia beautiful,
and I believe
litter is contagious.
If the street
is partially littered,
you'll see how fast
it gets to be a mess.
But if somebody picks it up,
nobody will be too quick
to throw something down,
and that's the way
patriotism is.
Since I started puttin'
the flag out here,
I think everybody
on the street ends up--
has one out on Memorial Day.
They wonder why
I put mine out so early.
John Andringa,
and I'm known as the Flag Man
in North Carolina.
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
Caption Perfect, Inc.
www.CaptionPerfect.com
♪
(announcer)
To subscribe
to Our State magazine,
visit the Web site
ourstate.com or call...
[strings support
gentle piano melody]
From the time BB&T
opened its doors in 1872
in the town of Wilson,
we've supported
the people and communities
of North Carolina
from the Outer Banks
to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
We've been in business
for 136 years,
making us the oldest bank
in North Carolina.
We're proud
of this distinction,
and we're also very proud
to provide funding
for Our State .
♪
Quality public television
is made possible
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of viewers like you,
who invite you to join them
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