'A History of Lake Norman: Fish Camps to Ferraris' by Chuck McShane

One way to tell a native Charlottean of a certain age is by what that person calls the large body of water to the north of us. If they call it Lake Norman, they are certainly not natives. If they refer to it as the River, they probably are.

As a just-released book, "A History of Lake Norman: Fish Camps to Ferraris" (History Press, $19.99), opens: "Before the lake there was the river." This river was home to the Kawahcatawba, which author Chuck McShane of Davidson calls "less a tribe and more of a loose federation of smaller, related settlements living in several villages that formed a linear band on either side of the river."

McShane covers it all, from William Davidson's Revolutionary War death in 1781 at Cowan's Ford; Buck Duke's and William States Lee's dream of an electrified South; the opening of the Catawba River Bridge in 1908;  the flood of 1916; the massive dynamiting of land in September, 1959, for the Cowan's Ford Dam; the construction of the dam in the early 1960s; the filling of the lake; and the rest is history.

In the chapter, "The Lore of the Lake: Tall Tales and Future Challenges," I had hoped to read about the winter the river froze and people could walk from one shore to another. I read about this in the microfilm of  an old newspaper -- maybe 1909 or 1919 -- and have always longed for further details. Nothing in this chapter mentions that incredible event.

Nevertheless, the book is engaging and well told.
  

Meet the Author

October 12th, 2014 at 2pm

Main Street Books

126 S Main St

Davidson, NC 28036

October 18th at 1pm

Charlotte Museum of History

3500 Shamrock Dr

Charlotte, NC 28215

November 8th from 9am-11am

Davis General Store

8940 Old Statesville Rd.

Charlotte, NC 28269

Yes, newcomers, Charlotte existed before the American Revolution

If you're new to Charlotte and unaware that this town existed before the Revolutionary War, you need to read Richard Plumer's "Charlotte and the American Revolution: Reverend Alexander Craighead, the Mecklenburg Declaration & and Fight for Independence" (The History Press, $21.99 paper). You'll learn that a bloody battle, in which the Mecklenburg militia defeated the British troops, took place in 1780 at the intersection of Tryon and Trade. You'll learn how the fiery Presbyterian minister Alexander Craighead incited the people of the backcountry to stand up for their rights against the British crown. You'll learn that although the county had less than three percent of the colony's population, its Patriots accounted for more than a quarter of North Carolina's Revolutionary troops.
Plumer is full of information, and he'll be signing books and talking about Charlotte's role in the war on the following dates:

On Thursday, from 6-7:30 p.m. at Rural Hill, 4431 Neck Rd., Huntersville
On Saturday, at 3 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place, 11055 Carolina Place Parkway, Pineville
On Saturday, July 12 at 1 p.m. at Charlotte Museum of History, 3500 Shamrock Dr.