Shallow Ford Wine Trail

Historic Places of Interest

There’s lots of history, most not visitable:

• Places of interest in the Huntsville area are the Big Poplar Tree, site of a skirmish between Tories and Patriots on October 14, 1780. Remnants of the old Mulberry Fields Road can be seen near the huge tree. One Patriot, Captain Henry Francis is buried there. Recently, descendants of Captain Francis placed a new and corrected tombstone at his grave. Since that time, the nearby creek has been called Battle Branch.
• On the north side of the Mulberry Fields Road 14 Tories are believed to have been buried. In the spring of 1781, British General Lord Cornwallis traveled this same road in his pursuit of America General Nathanael Greene. Greene had crossed at the Trading Ford, but because of spring rains, Cornwallis had to move up the west bank of the Yadkin River to cross at the Shallow Ford. Fortunately, this gave Greene time to reach Virginia and raise more troops.
• Cornwallis and his British troops passed by the Big Poplar Tree. Local tradition holds that Cornwallis either shot the top of the tree or, or that the tree was small, and his horse nibble out the topmost branches. A more likely story is that the tree (over 250 years old) was struck by lightening.
• Always ask permission before entering because these sites are on private land.
• Thomas Ferrabee's grave site is close by on Pino Road (Ferrabee dropped the atomic bomb and is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of American lives by shortening WW II.)
• Huntsville missed the vote as state capital by one vote, but there are no historic structures; the slave market is long torn down and Kelly’s Tavern is ready to fall in on itself. The owner of the slave block was named Holden and his 1850’s style house, on the Daniel Boone trail, is by the popcorn factory. It’s now Holden’s Day Lilies.
• Daniel Boone’s first cabin is about two miles from here at the headwaters of Sugar Creek, but there is nothing to see and it’s on private property.
• The old Hunt House is visible from Farmington Road (Hunt’s daughter had a child by one of his slaves, Hunt killed the slave in his basement and so the house is “haunted” by the slave’s ghost.)
• Misty Creek has found 50 cal. balls from the civil war and some Indian artifacts on their property.
• There is a gold mine about a mile from Misty Creek, and a confederate silver mine on the west bank of the Yadkin River south of the shallow ford crossing.
• The Union armies under General George Stoneman pounded this area passing through in 1865, sacked Huntsville and looted and burned Bethania.
• General Burgoyne passed here during the American Revolution and the spot where he crossed the Little Pee Dee River is marked on the 17th hole at Pudding Ridge Golf Course.