the quarry, which is opcialcd by Ihc
Supciiot Slone Company.
SK.lt, -4,ni ol .cats M
•Л
lioin thtt quoriy
о»
Brlpiail»— (Photo In Arts I'ii.
«•IMehl
The Clam that Began
to Build an Airstrip
llelgrflilc'N “mliic": Jacksonville
moiling pot: Sneads Ferry’s I'isliinU
fleet: Suansboro’s revival; Rit-h-
land’s fanning: Holly Rid£«‘*M flam¬
boyant rise and decline.
If./ KIM. sharp»:
Millions of years ago, a cbm stalled
Belgrade's principal industry, ll was un
unculculatcd and unencrgclic bit of
labor, (or all ihc clam did was lo give
one Iasi push with his ingenious jet-
propulsion mechanism, and. wcury of
life, expire and sink
ю
ihc bottom of
the sea There he «as joined by a
miscellany of oysters and other mol-
lutks until the ocean bottom was
covered. In ihc course of millions of
yean, their skeletons were piled on
top of each other for sonic 20 feet
and became petrified into a solid mass
of rock.
Now. discovered underneath the
topsoil, the weary clam and his bil¬
lions of kin arc being dynamited into
use again. In the past decade count¬
less tons of shell rock has been grubbed
up. ground, and made into plane Land¬
ing strips, as well as highways and
other useful things.
No one knows just how long ago
the shell deposit was started. But it
rests upon a bed of sand which is be¬
lieved to have been Ihc bottom of an
ancient sea which at one time ex¬
tended as far west a. Raleigh It took
a long time for the little shellfish to
build a bed 20 feet thick, and then
uinie thing happened, and oocc more
(perhaps for the 7th and last time)
the Atlantic was shoved eastward.
For millions of more years, tlie then-
lofty Appalachians were eroded, and
streams brought down silt and de¬
posited it in a strata ten feet thick.
Today it is fertile land, and farmers
never dreamed that they were cultiva¬
ting their fields above a massive layer
of maritime skeleton.
The “mine" lies on the Onslow-
Jones line. Belgrade, itself,
в
a village
of a few hundred population, with
rural trade its only enterprise outside
JACKSONVILLE
There was a time when it was the
other way around, but now when you
say "Jacksonville.- it is better to add
"Florida” if you're to be understood.
North Carolina's Jacksonville is big.
too. and growing, and known around
the world It is even more cosmopoli¬
tan than the Florida city.
In 1440 there were 873 people in
the village; in 1450 there were 3.460;
and perhaps 10,000 now. but that
feebly suggests the growth. Because of
iu unincorporated suburbs and the
pun-time use of the city by the lens
of thousands of people living in Camp
Lejcunc, Jacksonville has many ol the
appearances, advantages, and prob¬
lems ol a town of 15,000.
Its old center is the business section
crowded around the courthouse close
by the river. Fir*» development con-
gested this section, then the city ex¬
ploded far out into the flatlands. Along
brood streets and highways it grew,
and residential and shopping sections
sprang up even further removed.
Well- Planned
Jacksonville, for all its rapid de¬
velopment. has a very low city debt
in proportion to its valuation One
reason is the assistance given by the
Federal Government in recognition of
the burdens placed on the community
by its big military establishment Help
for schools, water works, and the
sewage disposal plant has been sub¬
stantial. Town tax rate is $1.65; valua¬
tion $13,500.000.
Foresight has brought more order
into the growth than would be
plausible ill a strictly civilian com¬
munity. Long ago Jacksonville re¬
quired builders to install streets,
gutters, utilities, and sidewalks (where
needed), and nooc of this equipment
is a charge on the taxpayer.
The town looks like nothing now so
much us a mammoth real estate de¬
velopment with an astonishing number
of eating places Lots are of uniform
si/e usually 60 to 75 feet front — ■
and 40 per cent of the homes (or
more) arc modem, well-spaced in
landscaped settings.
Since most residences have been
built at pans of large-scale sub¬
divisions. there is uniformity in living
conditions — few shacks and perhaps
less than a dozen conspicuously clabo-
27
