[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 70 years,
bringing the wonders
of North Carolina
to readers across the state.
On this edition,
the geologic marvel
known as Linville Caverns...
♪
the medieval fantasy come true
known as Castle McCulloch...
♪
and the elaborate creations
of a group of artists
known as "Sandy Feat."
♪
[gentle piano melody]
(male announcer)
From Manteo to Murphy
and all the small towns
and big cities in-between,
BB&T believes opportunity lives
everywhere in North Carolina.
It's a belief we've held
for more than 130 years
and guides us
as we support our communities
from the mountains
to the coast.
We love calling
North Carolina home,
and we're proud to provide
major 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.
♪
[glass harp resonating]
♪
[flowing strings]
♪
(narrator)
It started with a story.
Back in the 1800s,
fisherman returning from a trip
claimed there was treasure
buried deep
in Humpback Mountain.
Spurred by their curiosity,
why fish mysteriously appeared
out of the side
of the mountain,
they followed a stream
deep inside.
♪
Imagine their excitement
and disbelief
as the light
from their candle
flickered off the gold hues
of Linville Caverns.
♪
It must have been like entering
into another world,
both frightening
and beautiful.
♪
For well over 100,000 years,
water flowing through
the mountain's limestone
has carved out
this underground labyrinth.
♪
In 1937,
nearly a century
after they were
first discovered,
a group of businessmen
formed a corporation
to open the caverns
to the public.
The business lasted
only a couple of years
before a devastating
flood crippled the region.
The caverns were hard hit,
wiping out buildings
and the electrical system
that powered
the lights inside.
(woman, voiceover)
It was at that time
that my grandfather
bought stock in the caverns,
and he was offered
all of the stock,
and he bought
the caverns that way
and started
rebuilding.
♪
(narrator)
Now, three generations later,
the family is still managing
the geologic treasure
pretty much
along the original lines,
making improvements
for safety and convenience
but preserving
the natural beauty
for all to enjoy.
(Davis)
A lot of caverns,
their biggest draw
is the size of their rooms,
the size of different
formations and stuff.
We have a lot of color
because of all the minerals
inside the caverns.
(male guide)
Now, if you are claustrophobic,
it's not a good idea
to be the first one in.
(narrator)
Entering the caverns,
the first thing you may notice
is that it's a little dark,
a little damp, and little cool.
(Davis)
The temperature is 52°
and stays that way year round.
The only place that it
changes is just inside the door.
(narrator)
The perfect environment
for all kinds of critters.
♪
(Davis)
We have granddaddy longlegs.
They hibernate in there.
We have eastern pipistrelle
and brown bats.
We have salamanders.
We have one spider that's
named after Linville Caverns.
It was discovered here.
(guide)
Now, as you're walking
right through here,
this is what we call
a "bedrock table."
Millions of years ago
the stream ran there--
right here.
♪
(Davis)
The water temperature varies
according to time of year
that you're in there.
The water, we believe,
feeds from the outside,
from north fork
of the Catawba River,
and then it flows
through the caverns,
and at one point it veers off
to feed the bottomless pool.
It's been measured
over 250 feet,
and they didn't touch bottom.
Everybody remembers
the bottomless pool
and total darkness.
(narrator)
The lights are turned off
to give visitors a true sense
of what it's like without
the benefit of illumination.
[children chattering excitedly]
Total darkness is startling,
except perhaps to the bats
and the so-called blind fish.
♪
(Davis)
They're not born blind
but a sort of film-covering
comes across their eyes
as they stay
in the dark for so long.
They have sight, to a point,
but we call them
blind trout.
[hammered dulcimer joins]
♪
(narrator)
Linville is considered
an active cavern.
The formations that decorate
the inside
are still forming drop by drop,
sparked by the rainfall
on Humpback Mountain.
♪
(Davis)
It takes about three days
from the time we get rain
on the outside
for the water to make its way
down through the mountain
and through the cracks
and crevices
to where
it's dripping in there.
♪
(narrator)
A drop emerges
from the cracks and crevices
carrying the basic
ingredient needed
to create
the underground marvels--
the mineral calcite.
No longer able to hold
the minerals collected
as the water
percolates downward,
the drop deposits
its tiny mineral load
as a single crystal.
♪
Billions and billions
of drops later
formations take shape.
♪
It's easy to see shapes
in the formations
the drops have made--
drying tobacco leaves...
♪
or a wedding scene
with bride, groom, and priest.
(Davis)
We've had people
that have wanted
to have weddings there.
We did have one couple.
They weren't
actually married there,
but they sort of said
a few vows there.
In this caverns,
unlike others
where you stand back
and look at large rooms
and large formations,
here, you're right next
to formations,
but that gives you
a better look and a better view
of what's actually going on
in the caverns.
This is our
Guess What formation.
It's the one formation that
we ask all our visitors to name
because it looks like
so many different things.
♪
Behind me
is the Frozen Niagara
This is the largest
and oldest stalactite
in the caverns,
starting from up
at the ceiling
and forming down.
Just down in this corner
is the heart of the caverns;
it looks like a heart.
And above your heads
is the profile
of George Washington.
♪
We ask from the beginning
that you don't touch
the formations.
When you touch it,
the oil from your skin
stays on a rock,
and that prevents the mineral
from adhering to the rock
to cause it
to grow anymore.
And in the narrowest sections
we don't mind people
touching the formations
because we don't want it
to close up any tighter.
(guide)
Watch your heads
as you come along.
(Davis)
So there are low rocks
and low places
where you do have to duck
and watch your head.
And there's one;
we call it the headache rock.
Most people hit that.
You're looking at the fish
and don't realize
that rock's there.
We've all hit it too,
most of us.
I definitely have,
heh, heh!
♪
(narrator)
Modern improvements
such as electric lighting
have made the beauty
of this cave readily visible.
It's hard to imagine, however,
what early explorers
might have seen,
with only a candle
or tiny hand lantern
to light their way.
(Davis)
In 1884,
Thomas Edison sent a team
headed by William--
W.E. Hidden.
He was in search of platinum
to be used in Edison's
incandescent bulb,
and he was
in Linville Caverns.
He went as far back
as you can possible go,
past where a tour goes.
And didn't find the platinum
he was looking for,
but everybody in his team
scratched their names
on the rock back there.
So it's called
"Signature Rock."
(narrator)
W.E. Hidden might not
have found platinum,
but he's credited
with discovering
another mineral in the area
that's since
been given his name--
hiddenite.
This far back
in the caverns
your senses have a tendency
to play tricks on you.
(Davis)
When you're in there,
especially getting towards
the back of the caverns,
and you know you're
the only ones in there,
you can hear--
it sounds almost
like a woman singing
way back in the back.
It's just the water
coming across the rocks,
but it scares a lot of people.
(narrator)
The watery siren
echoes her song into the
darkest part of the caverns.
(Davis)
There is more to the caverns.
It goes back
about the same amount
that the public sees.
We don't intend
to do any more opening
of the caverns
because it would endanger
what's already there.
♪
(narrator)
And what is there
has been hundreds of thousands
or, perhaps, millions of years
in the making.
♪
It's hard to comprehend
the extreme age
of something like
the Linville Caverns,
but it's not hard
to be thankful for the care
the attraction has received
from Sarah Davis
and her family
over many decades.
It's pretty well assured
that future visitors
will see just as much beauty
and spectacle
as people visiting
Linville Caverns today.
[bells punctuate
flowing strings]
♪
[serene harp melody]
♪
[violins drone
as tambourine thumps]
♪
(narrator)
Richard Harris is a man
who knows how to dream...
and this particular dream
began when he
was ten years old.
(Harris)
The way I found the castle was,
I was riding
my bicycle out here
from High Point
with three of my buddies,
and we stopped
at Kersey Valley Grocery.
The little old lady
behind the counter,
I always remember
what she said.
I was ten years old,
and she said,
"You boys wouldn't want to see
an old, haunted castle
down in the woods,
would ya?"
Well, of course,
we all came tearing down here,
and it looked very much
like an old haunted
ruin of a castle.
(narrator)
The pile of ruins
he saw that day was the remains
of an old Randolph County
gold-stamping mill
built in the 1830s
by a Scotsman
named Charles McCulloch.
♪
It was abandoned
after the Civil War
and fell into ruin,
and it was
the early 1980s
before Richard could revive
his boyhood dream
to buy the property
and reconstruct what he called
"Castle McCulloch."
♪
(Harris)
We had to rebuild everything,
and we built about 20%
of the stone back.
We laid over a million pounds
of stone in the restoration.
I once calculated
it took in excess
of 1 billion hammer blows
to quarry the stone.
(narrator)
Chisel marks from
the stonemasons' hammers
are visible today
on the heavy granite blocks,
and because the old building
had housed a steam engine,
the windows
were nothing more
than just open holes
for ventilation.
But of course,
a castle has to have windows,
so Richard made some.
(Harris)
That's English leaded glass.
We added the crystal and
stained glass over the door.
Of course,
we put in the chandelier,
and we added
the iron railings.
There were no railings around
when there was a steam engine.
The oiler would walk
on those balconies.
There was no wooden
structure remaining
when the building
was restored,
so all these beams
were cut new.
This one weighs
about 8,500 pounds.
The paneling in the back
was a replica of paneling
that's in the Lost Colony
Museum near Manteo.
I like the simplicity
and everything.
It was the period
that I wanted for the castle.
(narrator)
And in case you hadn't noticed,
Castle McCulloch
also has a moat.
It's not hard to imagine
some fair maiden
crossing over to safety
in the castle,
which brings us
to the next part of the story
because,
in Richard Harris's mind,
there's much more
to a castle
than just four walls
and a moat.
I really wanted to create
what I'd seen in Europe,
where a whole little valley
was created with bridges
and dams and waterfalls
and fountains.
So I set about that,
and we've been building on it
for 20 years now.
So far, we have
a nice granite lake,
a fountain,
a couple buildings.
I won't be finished
till I'm dead, I think.
(narrator)
The unstoppable Mr. Harris
has crafted a medieval
wonderland at Castle McCulloch
and also built
a thriving business.
The place is now
North Carolina's largest
wedding venue.
(man)
We welcome all who have come
to share in this
sacred occasion.
(narrator) Countless brides have
been married in the Great Hall.
[light violin tune]
Before long, the wedding
business was so successful
that Richard needed to have
more than one place
to stage a wedding,
and thus,
the Crystal Garden was born.
It's an exuberant bit
of architecture
fashioned after Queen
Victoria's Crystal Palace,
and as usual,
Richard's creative juices
were flowing freely.
(Harris)
A friend of mine
gave me $50,000 worth
of this beveled glass--
very expensive stuff--
and so I designed the building
just for the glass.
[gentle harp melody]
(narrator)
The centerpiece of this room
is a giant chandelier
Richard made in his workshop
when he discovered
that buying one like it
would cost upwards
of $60,000.
Now the property
boasts seven locations
to have a wedding,
either indoor or out.
And as you might suspect,
given Castle McCulloch's
many attractive features,
there's a whole lot more
that goes on here
than just weddings.
Well, now which
way do we go?
Pardon me--
that's a very
nice way.
(narrator)
In the fall,
talent from the Community
Theatre of Greensboro...
Hooray!
(narrator)
transforms both grounds
and buildings
into an exciting
Land of Oz adventure.
[Dorothy and Scarecrow]
♪ Weee're off
t o see the wizard ♪
♪ The wonderful
Wizard of Oz ♪
(narrator)
No matter where Dorothy
and her young friends
may go in their search
for the Wizard of Oz,
there's always
a fantastic setting
available
for the story...
(baritones)
♪ Oh-ee-oh ♪
whether on the drawbridge
or in the castle itself.
[children screeching]
ahhhh, ahhhh...ahhhh
(witch)
Ring around the rosie,
my broom
has chosen you!
(Dorothy)
No, I won't let you!
Ahhhh!
(narrator)
And if you click
your heels twice...
(Dorothy)
There's no place like home.
(narrator)
and really believe...
(Dorothy)
There's no place like home.
(woman)
Good-bye, Dorothy.
(narrator)
you could end up...
in December.
[flute and harp play
"Deck the Halls"]
This particular dream--
maybe the most
elaborate one yet--
started back in July,
when Richard
began devising a way
to transform the property
into a Christmas spectacle.
[winch
clicking]
That's good.
(narrator)
It's a sight that folks
in Charles McCulloch's time
could scarcely
have imagined.
Twinkling lights abound...
from the castle...
across the pond...
and along Amber Bridge.
[synthesized piano playing
"Here Comes Santa Claus"]
The castle's Great Room
looks almost like something
from Currier & Ives,
complete with Santa
reading letters
from his true believers.
♪
And each February,
there is an elaborate,
richly styled
winter festival,
called "Castle Carnevale."
♪
♪
You may sit
wherever you wish.
(narrator)
All of this
plus whatever Richard Harris
may add to his castle
and grounds in the future
is very much in keeping
with the vision of a man
who never stops dreaming.
♪
[shovel digging]
chh, chh...chh
[waves breaking]
shhhh
[synthesized drums
play upbeat arrangement]
♪
(narrator)
Oh, to be young again...
with nothing
but a wide beach
of inviting sand
stretching out before you.
[guitar joins]
When we were 6 or 7,
maybe even 10 or 12,
there wasn't anything
too much better
than time spent
building castles in the sand.
[piano joins]
♪
But then reality
inevitably intervenes,
changing sun-splashed
dreamers into doctors, lawyers,
salespeople, machinists,
or architects...
unless, of course,
you are Ed Moore,
a Raleigh architect,
who regularly carves time out
from his busy career
to play in the sand.
This self-proclaimed
"sandbox CEO"
and the other
latter-day castle carvers
are known
as Sandy Feat--
f-e-a-t--
and from time to time,
their work can be seen,
at least temporarily,
at festivals, fairs,
and other venues
all across our state.
Give them a weekend,
and they'll create
something marvelous
out of nothing but sand.
Start with stacks
of the stuff--
16 to 24 tons of sand.
(Moore)
It's loose-grain sand,
and you can back on it
and beat on it,
and it just doesn't
hold its shape
because it doesn't have
any moisture in it.
And when you add
some moisture
and you start
packing that sand,
then it can hold its shape.
Add extra
moisture to it,
and it actually
won't hold together.
So we've gone
past the point
that we want to have
moisture in it.
It's kinda like
makin' homemade biscuits--
you can either put
too much or too little.
[violin leads lively
bluegrass tune]
(narrator)
What will this
"sandy feat" become?
No doubt,
a uniquely wonderful
and, most likely,
whimsical creation
to commemorate this year's
Festival for the Eno.
♪
This year's
Eno River theme?
The slider turtle.
(Moore)
You know, I wanted to capture
something using turtles.
Last year,
it was--
Last year,
it was the
lighting bugs.
the lightning bugs,
last year.
And so we had kids
catching lighting bugs,
but then we had two giant
lighting bugs catching kids.
I decided
that I wanted
to have a giant turtle
on a log,
and I've got to have
the shape of the turtle.
It's kinda rounded.
(narrator)
One wonders how long
his design will last
before Ed
and his artist team members
start carving
outside the lines.
(man)
Uh, that whole cylinder
would be the back
of, like,
a hollow tree coming up.
(Moore, voiceover)
Sand sculpture's
a little bit different
from other types of art.
We can have two or three
artists working together.
They climb up
this thing.
Exactly.
That's how
you get up.
And you say, well,
hey, that's a great idea,
or why don't you fly with that?
And then it's sort of blending
of art form together,
and that's sort of what I like
about the sand-sculpting.
[piano leads]
[indistinct talking]
♪
(narrator) A few rough cuts here
and there using familiar tools,
setting the stage
for what comes next--
drawing the image
out of the sand,
so to speak,
with finer tools.
(Moore)
These are just mason's trowels.
Some of 'em are pointed.
Some of 'em
used to be square,
like this,
and you've worn it down
because that sand
wears it down.
It's a wonder we have
any fingerprints left.
♪
(narrator)
Since sand-sculpting
is a "performing art,"
there's always
an appreciative audience.
(Moore)
And people
can watch it progress.
They can come back
later that day
and see new things
that have come out.
They're here
to have a good time.
We're here to help
entertain everybody,
and it's for us.
We're here to have
a good time.
(narrator)
One of the craft's
more fascinating techniques
is how grooves
and pockets in the sand
are carved out to produce
contrast and character.
(Moore)
Since sand-sculpting
is monochromatic--
you're only working
with one color--
the only way
that you can create things
is to create shadow.
We have to be able
to carve in and up
and carve under something
and make something protrude out
to create
a change in light.
[indistinct talking]
We do have
to tell people
when they're
taking photographs,
"Don't use your flash."
The light goes into
and takes away all the shadow.
(narrator)
The process
is a lot more free-form
than you might think
an architect would allow.
(Moore)
And since we modified what
we were originally gonna do,
we don't even have a drawing
of this particular one at all.
It's going according
to the shape
of the sand
that we're working with.
(narrator)
So, somewhere in there,
you can bet there's
a raft of slider turtles
ready to express themselves
in some nonturtlelike way.
(Moore)
Well, turtles are sorta docile.
They sit around,
and what can ya do with 'em?
And then we said,
well, slider turtles,
and that's when
we started talking
and saying, well,
they could be sliding.
Well, let's put 'em
on a slide.
So we're gonna have these
turtles climbing up this stump
to get up to the top
to come zipping down.
♪
(narrator)
Alas,
the art of Sandy Feat
is not meant to last...
except as a memory
of that perfect summer's day
at Eno River State Park.
(Moore)
People say, "Don't you want
to save it and have it,
"you know, permanently
covered with something
and make it
stay forever?"
And I say,
"No, not really,"
because it's the fun
of doing it.
♪
(narrator)
A child's sandcastle,
like their
latest creation,
will not survive
the test of time and tide,
but the wonder of it all,
of course,
is that you get to start
on a new creation
anytime you want,
and that is a splendid
metaphor for life itself,
no matter
what your age.
[gulls calling]
ehhh, ehhh...ehhh
[waves crashing gently]
ehhh, ehhh...ehhh
slsh, slsh...slsh
[crickets chirping]
[waves crashing]
[birds chirping]
[violin leads
stately melody]
♪
[piano suggests chamber music]
♪
[violins join]
♪
♪
Captioning by Caption Perfect
www.CaptionPerfect.com
[water sloshing]
(announcer)
To subscribe
to "Our State" magazine,
visit the Web
site www.ourstate.com or call...
[gentle piano melody]
From small towns
to bustling cities,
from the Outer Banks
to the Blue Ridge Mountains
and all the places in-between,
BB&T believes opportunity lives
everywhere in North Carolina.
And for more than 130 years,
we've helped people
discover it.
We're proud
of our North Carolina roots,
and we're proud to provide
major 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.