In 2025, the Friends of Bays History Committee plans to investigate the sites in Back Hollow while simultaneously showing off the sites found last year in Front Hollow.

Back Hollow: As of February 2025, we've already re-discovered a "lost" cabin foundation on the east half of Back Hollow and interviewed someone who grew up there in the 1950s and 60s.  We also found two additional foundations on the west end of Back Hollow.

Front Hollow: In February we also led a guided history hike to the 5 sites in Front Hollow that were discovered and cleared last year. Plans are underway to install interpretive history signs at most of those sites.

In 2024 the History Committee focused on finding old homesites in Front Hollow, documenting who lived at each property (it's much more difficult than you would think!), and clearing the brush away to preserve and showcase the remnants of the homes that once stood there.

It all started with a 1939 USGS map showing small dots where homes stood at that time. With the map in hand, we explored Front Hollow looking for remains of those homes and were pleased to find every one! Then we started researching to determine who lived at each property, and when. Hundreds of hours were spent sleuthing through deeds, records and old audio tapes of past residents. In parallel with that, volunteers worked hard at clearing small trees and brush immediately around the foundations.

Starting at Ledbetter Gap and heading west into Front Hollow, here are some highlights of this year-long project:

1) The first site you'll find is about 1/3 mile west of the Gap. In addition to an old foundation and hundreds of daffodils, the Ledbetter/Cawood site has a special feature: An earthen dam built by the Cawood family, probably in the 1940s-50s. But the dam had a tear that allowed water to cut right through it. Our volunteers worked for 3 days, reforming the damaged section and securing it with a stone spillway to control the flow.

2) Going west a little more... a collapsed log barn near the Cross Ridges Trail was hiding an old home foundation in the brush a few yards away. Extensive research told us that this was probably the home of Noah and Mary Fincher. Then later it belonged to Monroe and Eva Bray, and they in turn sold it to Eva's younger brother John Quillen.

3) And only 200 yds west of that... the John Fincher homesite was a bonus we weren't expecting. This 1800's stone foundation was hidden in the brush near a dilapidated 1940s-era frame house with a cinder-block section. Many people had seen the cinder-block house on this site but had overlooked the foundation, boxwood bushes, and spring nearby. This is a significant find because John Fincher was the patriarch of the Fincher family on Bays Mountain. We have many wonderful stories of John and his family that we always share in our history talks.

4) A few hundred yards past the Fincher homeplace, we found another surprise hidden in the woods: a foundation with an unusually intact chimney. This is the tallest remnant of an 1800s-era chimney that we've found on Bays Mountain. Research told us that this was probably the home of Sam & Martha Fincher.

Looking back, it makes sense that the original Fincher homeplace sat in the center of this stretch, with property on the east and west going to sons Noah and Sam as they grew up and got married.