Enjoying the River
Sea Scouts
Led by Skipper C.D. Brothers, and later by GB McLeod, Hutaff Blake, Thomas Hatchell, Joe Doares and William Driscoll, possibly the most inland “ship” of the Sea Scouts in the USA, had its base in Lumberton for 42 years. As with the Explorer Scouts, the purpose of the group was to allow older Boy Scouts an opportunity for more independent adventure and discovery. They learned nautical and navigational terminology, water rescue and safety, and equipment care/maintenance.
Launching their wooden sixteen-foot, two-man boats from storage in the basement of the American Legion Hut at Water and Fourth Streets in Lumberton, the scouts would set out on weekend cruises on the river. These were shakedown trips to prepare for the week-long cruise from Lumberton, Boardman or Princess Anne, NC to Winyah Bay at Georgetown, SC. It was also an opportunity to enjoy being out in Nature with friends. The author has indelible memories of great adventures with fellow scouts following the twists, turns, cut throughs and sloughs on the Lumber, Little Pee Dee, Waccamaw and on the open water of The Great Pee Dee River and Winyah Bay. On a final night, and with great walls of forested river swamp on both sides, the scouts stowed their tents and hammocks and drifted under a star-filled sky. Trees, with broken and twisted limbs, silhouetted against the night sky resembled gargoyles and chimeras while sounds emerged from the bottomland forests. Was it barred owls, bobcats? Maybe it was the fabled catawampus. Imaginations ran wild with the careening river. (All of the six boats capsized at some point, some more than once, with boatmate David King, III and the author finally shipping water within feet of a boat dock on a wavy Winyah Bay.)
On April 21, 2023 a reunion of the Sea Scouts was held at Adelio's Restaurant in Lumberton where District Executive, Jonathan Widmark, of the BSA Cape Fear Council, shared a history of Ship #328. He based his detailed video presentation on extensive research of the ship's 3 existing logbooks from the 1940s, council records and conversations he had with several former scouts.
Scouting's link to the river remains unbroken as boy scouts battle poison ivy, green briars, kudzu, and curtains of wisteria to reopen viewpoints.
Off to the Races
The Lumber River Canoe Regatta was staged on the Upper Lumber River Canoe Trail around Wagram, NC between 1976 and 1986 until wind-thrown trees blocked passage. In other organized and sanctioned races, such as The Paddle Battle, competitors splashed through Lumberton and from Princess Anne to Fair Bluff
For a few years in the early 80s, there was also a race in July through Lumberton featuring water-craft fashioned out of wood, metal, Styrofoam or whatever the inventors found that would float. Black & Decker employees from Fayetteville even went to the trouble of building a pedal-powered, paddle-wheel craft that churned impressively for the finish line.
Fun on the River
Riverside trees provide perches for more species than birds and squirrels. They also shelter wildlife and shade fishermen who seek to hook a bass or a bream. Summer's heat is tempered by a dip in cool river waters.
Rumba on the Lumber
For many years, on the first Saturday in March, the city of Lumberton and the Robeson Road Runners have organized 1 mile, 5K, and 10K races through the city. The course has it most scenic segment along Riverside Drive running along the natural bluff that forms the eastern riverbank. Along with the entry fees for the races, the Road Runners host the On the Border Chili Cook-Off to raise funds for a different charity every year.
Watery Trails/Tall Tales
Local lore tells of a hapless fisherman who got some unexpected company when he nosed his plywood boat under a bending willow near the riverbank intent on hooking a redbreast sunfish. A dull thump caused him to tear at the leaves about his face. He had to know if there was any substance to his misgivings about what had just landed in his craft. There was! Three feet from his shoelaces lay the finest specimen of Agkistrodon piscivorus he would later swear ever existed. At the moment he found it easier to identify it by the cottonmouth it displayed than by its Latin name. Instinct directed him to use the 12 gauge he carried for potential threats to dispatch his unwelcomed guest. A shower of cool water splashed over him as he watched the snake’s limp tail slip through a hole that allowed the river to rise around him.
According to Al Pittman, speculation had it that one Lum Ellis squirreled his cash in a large cypress tree in the Net Hole/Buck Landing area near the confluence of Big Swamp and the Lumber. As far as anyone knows, it may still be there awaiting a withdrawal. Few places could have been more suitable for hiding, and losing, treasure than the Net Hole.
From his perch in the picturesque A-frame house he built on Pea Ridge, a little downstream of the U.S. Highway 74 bridge at Boardman, Lawrence Britt had a panoramic view of the river. Regular walks along the riverbank were a part of his exercise routine. In a conversation prior to his death, he told how he had once stumbled upon a gunny sack near his home. On inspection he found it full of pint bottles of clear liquid that turned out to be “stump-hole” liquor. Pea Ridge was famous for the moonshine made there. Sheriff Malcolm McLeod and his deputies were kept busy busting, sometimes dynamiting, stills in Robeson County.
