Discover Smith Mountain Lake
SUMMER 2016
55
54
company (Crawford Excavating) and
also a company that hauls potable
water (Crawford Water Hauling).
They are both John Deere fanatics and
have participated in every tractor pull
ever staged at the Franklin County
Recreation Department park, if the
amount of trophies and plaques they
have won is any indication.
They are collectors of John Deere
equipment, and own too many two-
cylinder tractors to count; they have
personally restored them all.
“We own all of John
Deere’s letter series,”
Jane said, as she
rattled off information
about them that only
a mechanic would
understand. The oldest
is a 1938, with which
she’s won an impressive
number of “pulls”.
They had to put up an
airplane-hanger-type
building to hold them
all. In fact, they have
two barns: one for the tractors being
restored, and one for those that are
already restored. There is more green
and yellow around their place than
at a John Deere dealership, or any
paint store. Jane even had a golf cart
customized to look like a John Deere.
As owner and operator of the excavating
company, Slim has cleared ground, cut-
in roads, and carved out the foundations
for homes in some 50 subdivisions in
Bedford and Franklin County areas, and
he’s still at it. This article, however, is
about their remembrances of the lake
when it was just forming.
“Elaine Jones was a student of mine,”
Jane explained, “and I knew her family
owned a campground. So one day I
asked her about renting a campsite, and
she gave us direction to her house.”
The Jones’s were tobacco growers in
the Gills Creek area, and they raised
cattle.They also raised a lot of children,
nine total, eight of their own and a
foster child. Like other farmers in the
area, they had misgivings about the
proposed lake. They were, after all,
farmers -- not lake people. However,
want it or not, the lake was coming, so
like some of the other farmers whose
land was flooded, the Jones’ opened a
campsite. That is where Slim and Jane
became acquainted with the lake, which
was still forming at that time.
“They were about the first campers
Daddy ever had,” says Elaine Jones,
now Elaine Overstreet. She married
Ivan Overstreet, and settled down
right near the old homestead. Ivan is a
well know local musician, and he plays
regularly with other musicians at the
Scruggs fire station.
“The Crawfords are wonderful people.
She was my PE teacher. She talked
Daddy into letting me run track, and
she always made sure I had a ride home
and got there safely. She’s a wonderful
woman, a special person. They have
done so much for our community.They
used to camp with the Haymakers,”
Elaine recalled, “and they named the
cove near their campsite Larson’s Cove,
because they all had Larson boats they’d
bought in Roanoke.”
“We could pull six
skiers at once,” Jane
said, “even though our
boat was only a 50
horsepower. We even
learned to do pyramids
on skis.”
After a few years of
camping at the Jones
campground, Slim and
Jane bought their own
land: 10 acres on Gills
Creek.
“It was like a wilderness in those days,”
Slim said. The lake was still filling, and
boaters and skiers had to dodge the tops
of trees when they were on the water.
“They cut down all the trees 50 feet
out from the shoreline,” Jane said, “and
before the stumps were covered by
water, they had started to grow again.”
Slim also told of an underwater camera
he’d looked through in Gills Creek, and
saw actual rows of corn stubble.“Of
course by now, it’s all covered with silt.”
“Franklin County was dry in those days,”
said Slim, “But I saw more beer being
moved from Max Cundiff’s Store into a pickup truck...
we used to go listen to (Bluegrass) music in the fertilizer
section of the store and some would flatfoot.” Cundiff’s
store was located at the intersection of Routes 655 and 616.
He also told of buying ice in Roanoke from the ice house,
and reselling it to folks on the lake. He made enough money
to pay for their camping fees. He told of Pete Jones (Elaine’s
brother) hooking his father’s mule to skiers and pulling
them on the lake.There were no wake boards in those days,
just skis and lots of people learned to ski barefoot. Seeing a
mule pull a skier was rare, though, even in those days.
“My brothers and Jane were great skiers,” Elaine said.
“They used to win all the competitions at the 4-H.” She
also remembered the ski-pulling mule well. “His name was
Pete, same as my brother. Daddy had a pair of mules.They
were named Pete and Ellen. Old Pete lived to be 30 years
old, and I bawled my eyes out the day he died. People made
fun of me crying over an old mule. My brother would rig
the harness up high on his back so he could pull skis.”
Slim has a laminated newspaper article from 1963 hanging
on the wall in his office. That article listed the population
of Scruggs at that time as: “12 people and 5 houses”. Its
“commercial center”consistedof aconveniencestore (Max’s)
with a gas pump, and another store that was abandoned.
Realtors predicted, however, that the intersection (655
and 616) where the two stores were located would one
day become the “crossroads of Virginia”. There would be a
population boom, they said, right in Scruggs.There would
be a thriving business community. It would be a tourist
attraction. It seemed impossible. Scruggs lost its post office
in 1940, and its two-room school was also closed. Clearly,
the little community was dying, and most locals doubted
that a lake would ever bring it back.
After all, every road around Scruggs dead ended in the lake.
The only ones that could take you anywhere were going to
be covered by water. How could such a place blossom into
one subdivision after another? Who’d want a golf course
here?Who’d be fool enough to open a business? Scruggs a
popular tourist spot? A population explosion right here at
Scruggs?
Right!When a mule can pull water skis!
540-297-LOVE (5683)
1035 Mercantile Stre
Suite #101
Moneta, VA 24121
* corporate gifting
* gift baskets
* private event space
* catering
• Gourmet Chocolate
• Espresso Bar & Speciality
Co ees
• Tea & Kombucha
• Pastries
• Cakes & Pies
• Meeting Space
• Birthday & Paint Parties
• Full Service Catering
• Corporate & Personal
Gifting
1035 Mercantile Street • Suite 101 • Moneta, VA 24121
(540) 297-LOVE (5683)
W
I
N
N
E
R
A
W
A
R
D
S
•
2
0
1
6
BEST
OFSMITHMOUNTAINLAKE
3112 Melrose Avenue, Roanoke, Virginia
540-345-7665 •
Award Winning Custom In-Ground Pool Builder
Your local dealer for
Area’s largest selection of outdoor furniture
Dining sets, seating groups, chaise lounges,
umbrellas, hammocks, and more!
