State

the word for Sunny Point Here’s Big By JACK RILEY Dredges digging river channels for i he U. S. government terminal at Sun¬ ny Point not only arc changing the physical features of Brunswick County these days, hut they also arc molding an alluring new economic figure for the area. "Big" is the word for everything at Sunny Point. The site is 14.000 acres. It extends for seven miles along the Cape Fear River, beginning 2.5 miles above Southport. Three docks large enough to accommodate nine Liberty type ships at once will be built along the river front, with channels leading to a huge mooring basin 34 feet deep. From this anchorage, one channel will follow the normal river channel past Fort Caswell and another will lead straight to the open sea. passing near¬ er Bald Head Island. Not Just a Depot Tying the terminal with the interior will be a railroad front Lcland. which already is under construction. Forty- five miles of siding will be laid within the reservation. Brunswick folks foresee far greater things than the mere "ammunition de¬ pot" named in the original planning. The word "ammunition" seldom fig¬ ures in the talk these days. Instead, local folks envision one of the greatest general-purpose shipping terminals ever developed by the government. Far exceeding a mere "storage" depot, such a terminal would permit ships to meet trains and trains to meet shins in a steady interchange of supplies as re¬ quired by government operations, in peace or in war. The terminal will be owned by Army. Navy, Marines. Air Corps. Coast Guard and all other branches of the service. It will handle shipping for all of them, including men and ma¬ terial. Sunny Point is credited with natural advantages that could save Uncle Sam millions of dollars a year in shipping charges. If it thrives as a deep-sea ter¬ minal for Uncle Sam. the observers say. the surrounding area will enjoy an economic awakening. Boom Coming? Such speculation conjures up al¬ luring images of the financial future of Southport. Brunswick County and. in fact, of all southeastern North Caro¬ lina. Some see a big boom, new peo¬ ple. more payrolls, new business, more homes, new industry, etc. Already Brunswick’s physical fea¬ tures are changing fast. Huge dredges are chewing at the bottom of the Cape Fear River and spewing muck across the landscape on a scale that staggers the imagination of the unini¬ tiated. Dredging for the dock area alone will heave up IS million cubic yards of spoil. Such figures are unimpressive on paper, but on the ground they be¬ come phenomenal. Four plots from 60 to 1.100 acres in si/c w'crc cribbed with dikes av¬ eraging 15 feet high to form pockets for dumping the dredgings. Into these areas, the dredges last January began pouring their muck — 1 .000 cubic yards per hour around the clock. As the water drained away, lay¬ er after layer built up until the de¬ posits were as much as 35 feet deep, extending over hundreds of acres. Killed Forests 'I he salty water that drained away to the lowlands killed every sprig of vegetation it covered. Whole forests lost foliage in mid-summer. In spots, every tree stood stark and bare above a plateau of bleached sand — creating an eerie picture of winter bleakness in the hot summertime. At times, the water overflowed high¬ way N.C. 130 and impeded or re¬ routed Wilmington-Southport traffic. Thirty-inch pipes carried the dredg¬ ing hundreds of yards inland from the river. The cascade of water boiling from the ends of these big pipes brought all kinds and colors of earth. Гор layers of river bottom yielded rich, black mud containing fertilizer from fields hundreds of miles up the Cape Fear. Rich land, except for salt from the sea! Lower levels yielded yellow sand, scashcll. fine blue Down in Krunswick. a gigantic ocean termi¬ nal is being built; it dwarfs our own port developments and may bring a southeast boom. THE STATE. Vol. XXI; No. 33. Entered a* weond-cla** matter, June I. 1933. at the PottofTiee at Rale 1th. North Carolina, under the act of March 3. 1*79. Poblbhcd by Sharpe Publishing Co., Inc.. Lawyer* Bide-. Ralelth. N. C. Copyright, I9JI. by the Sharpe Publishing Co., Inc.