This is the second installment in a two-part series on the Deep River restoration project in Ramseur, North Carolina. For this series, I sat down with Mayor Hampton Spivey and Town Clerk Carol Akers to hear how growing up alongside the Deep River shaped their values and their vision for the town's future. Part One featured Hampton's interview. This is Carol's.Mayor Hampton Spivey and Town Clerk Carol Akers each bring something different to this project, and together they represent the two foundations we believe every good conservation effort needs, much like the left and right hands working together. While they both love Ramseur deeply, the lens through which they each view the river offers a nuanced, yet vital, distinction.
Hampton represents the "Left Hand": a deep personal connection to the wild and a belief that nature deserves to be healthy simply because it exists. His interview can be found in Part One. Carol represents the "Right Hand," the connection to community. To Carol, the river is the stage where people have gathered and connected across generations.
Here is what Carol had to say.
Carol Akers tends to approach the project through more of a community lens. A lifelong resident of Ramseur, Carol traces her family’s roots back to the founding of the town when it was just a simple grist mill powered by the very waters we are working to restore. To her, the river is the historic thread that binds the people of Ramseur together.
Q: How long have you lived in Ramseur? What brought you here and made you stay?
Carol: My entire life. My dad was here before that, his parents and grandparents brought him to town specifically to work at the cotton mill. They all lived, the five of them, in one company house, and they walked across the bridge every day and went to the company mill to work. They owed money to the company store like everybody else, and got paid in "script" instead of real money. It was a different time. I was taught, you get with the company, and you stay there until you retire, be good to them, and they'll be good to you.
Q: It sounds like a tight-knit community. Do you have a favorite memory from your time living here?
Carol: I loved running all over town, just like my daddy did when he was growing up. He would take me everywhere, and I would go to the Street Department of the Town Hall where the men worked or gathered to talk on Saturdays. I'd just sit there with them and listen to them talk about what was going on in Ramseur. It was vibrant in those days.
Q: How did the Deep River play a role in that community connection back then?
Carol: The whole town started out around a grist mill, which was my ancestor’s. They built the grist mill so they could use the water power to spin the wheel. And people could come to town to get their corn ground up. That’s what started the town, just the river and a grist mill. Back in the day, there used to be a boat ramp right near the dam. It was just a little short trip down to the dam, but people put their motorboats in on Saturdays and Sundays and just rode to the dam and back up. Two of the neighbors on my street had boats. One was blue and one was red and they would go down there on Sundays.
Q: What kind of a role do you see the Deep River playing in the town's future?
Carol: The river got Ramseur here, and the river will bring us back to life. We never imagined that a trail could actually happen when we made our wish list years ago, so we are so excited to see it now. I envision that developments will do trails that hook up to this trail so people have access. I’d love to see tubing on the river. You could put in a tube at Ramseur and go all the way to Coleridge.
Q: What is your hope for the dam removal specifically?
Carol: I know it [the dam] is a part of our history, but [removing] it will return the river to its original state whenever people first started settling around here. I'd love to see it come full circle. I would love to cross the river my ever-how-many times per day, and see families down there enjoying kayaking or tubing.
Q: If you had to describe the project's impact on Ramseur in one word, what would you pick?
Carol: Potential.
Hampton sees the river as something worth protecting in its own right: healthy and free, because nature has value simply by existing. Carol sees it as the thread that holds a community together, the place where people gather, build memories, and pass something meaningful on to the next generation. Both views are right, and both are necessary.
This is a core truth about conservation work. It can't succeed if it's only about the ecosystem; it also has to be about the people who depend on it and the values that make them want to protect it. The Deep River is a fitting example. In Ramseur, you have an 81-year-old mayor who slept on the riverbanks as a kid, and a town clerk whose family helped build the very town the river made possible. Their love for this place, and their shared belief in what it can still become, is exactly the kind of foundation that makes lasting conservation possible.
Projects like this remind us that conservation is about more than just hydrology or ecology; it's about building a foundation for resilient, vibrant communities. By supporting Unique Places to Save, you are directly contributing to projects that bridge the gap between ecological health and community revitalization.
Whether it's advocating for healthier waterways or supporting local greenways, your voice matters in ensuring these resources are protected for future generations.
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