It would take a mountain man to carve a golf course out of those ridges and steep hollows, and Ernie Hayes was that man.
The short 17th, affectionately named “Ernie’s Revenge, “ is unlike any other par 3 in the state. It gains 75 feet of elevation in 100 yards. The tee, where the plaque is located, can be seen to the left of the green.
atlantic flight. It is said that Bonnie and Clyde even chose a speedy Marmon for one of their getaway cars. In the 1930s, the company merged with another company, changed its name to Marmon-Harrington, and made fourwheel-drive construction vehicles. The company still exists today as The Marmon Group, and it is owned by America’s premier investor, Warren Buffet. Doug Clark, a tree farmer who owns Christmas Corner in Pineola, is an expert on the history of Howard Marmon and his family. Clark’s tree farm lies on part of the property and contains the Marmon residence, servant quarters, guest houses and 122
High Country Magazine
garages where he housed Marmons for his guests’ personal use. Clark also owns two Marmon automobiles. “Marmon built one of the largest evergreen nurseries in the world,” Clark said. “It had white pines, rhododendrons, hemlocks and azaleas— same thing we have today. “Marmon built Anthony Lake in 1927 so he and his friends could enjoy it. He added a trout hatchery on the upper end of the lake and he stocked the lake, and also nearby streams, for local residents, with 250,000 trout every year. He was a fine man,” Clark concluded. Marmon was part of the country’s elite business fraternity. Some of his friends
July 2011
who visited him at Hemlock Hedges were Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. They would get to Johnson City, Tenn., and ride Tweetsie almost to his doorstep. The lake washed away in the 1940 flood, and Marmon didn’t rebuild it. After his death in 1943, his estate was left to his wife Martha. All his property was sold over time. The fish hatchery and 243 acres east of U.S. 221 were sold to the State of North Carolina. The lake bed and nursery were sold to Sam Mortimer of Newland and Frank Payne of Boone. The Marmons had no children, so Martha passed on the estate to her sis-