Agenda - 08-17-2004-6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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This 193 acre site was a thriving farm owned by the Cates family well back into the 1980's. (See Report of Master Plan Work Group Report for the Chapel Hill Township Park and Educational Campus, June 2003). The Cate farmhouse was built in 1929 and is a fine example of a bungalow dwelling from that time period with many of the existing construction features still evident. 2. Geological: On the north west hilly corner of site of the District Park, just south of Eubanks Road and across from a pond which is part of watershed for Jones Creek, is a rhyolite quarry. Rhyolite was used for different types of stone tools, and most of the findings associated with these quarries are primarily Archaic period (8000 to 1000 B.C.) projectile points and other related tools. This is the first rhyolite quarry documented in Orange County. 3. Natural: The route crosses several creeks including Bolin Creek (a quarter of a mile from Calvander which flows through the towns of Carrboro and Chapel Hill), Buckhorn Branch (a tributary of Bolin Creek that flows from a pond on the left under the road and through the District Park), Jones Creek (a tributary of Bolin Creek), New Hope Creek and Mountain Creek. Duke University owns two sizeable tracts of approximately 1000 acres of land on either side of Old N.C. 86 just beyond the road's intersection with Eubanks Road. The parcel on the left (3.3 miles from Calvander) contains approximately 200 acres of mature trees and a trail, and the parcel on the right, which extends to contains the remainder. The part of the 1000 acre tract has frontage on the north and south sides of Eubanks Road. These properties are considered long -term research lands, portions of which are managed as natural areas and are included in the Orange County Inventory of Natural Areas. Included on the Inventory are the Bald Mountain Hardwood Slopes (Site NO1), Bald Mountain Gabbro Depression (Site NO2) and Meadow Flats (NO3). Near to Eubanks Road is Montmorillonite Forest (N04). 4. Wildlife: Wildlife include white -tail deer, wild turkeys, gray and red fox, beaver, turkey buzzards, red -tail hawk, owls of various kinds, turkey vultures, black vultures and others. 5. Scenic: See C) below.