Hardin Brothers Landscaping

November Updates

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Before going into the history of Broad Branch and Amber Ranches, here are some updates regarding the grounds of Amber Ranches…

First of all, 4 loads of road-bond have been ordered. One will be put out on the steep part of Amber Drive just after the bridge and before the intersection of Ben’s Bend (Zone 1 on the map below).

The second load will be put out on Amber Drive just past Chloe’s Court and the upper creek crossing heading up Alie Avenue (Zone 3).

The third load will be put out on Amber Drive just past Dana Drive where the road gets steep (Zone 5), and the fourth load will also be put out on Amber Drive around the intersection with Chuck’s Lane (Zone 5). These loads of road-bond should be enough to get us through the winter.

Most of the work at Amber Ranches during the month of November consisted of removing leaves from our ditches and culverts. Due to the leaves coming down so suddenly this year, along with a lot of rain, a big part of the leaf removal required manually shoveling and pitchforking the wet, compacted leaves out of the ditches and culverts.

As most of you know, it’s important to keep leaves off of our roads, out of our ditches and out of our culverts for a variety of practical reasons.

Besides leaf removal, some trees and branches also had to be cut up with a chainsaw and removed from our roads.

The weedeating is finally over for the year, but the road scraping never ends. Increased construction projects, heavy downpours, and too many 2-wheel drive vehicles travelling our roads have taken a toll on our roads. More roadbond and tractor scraping certainly helps, but please help out the condition of our roads by telling others to ONLY use all-wheel or four-wheel drive vehicles.

December Projects

Please get your heating tanks filled before the winter weather gets here! Snow and ice will be here soon and nobody wants to run out of heat during a snow storm when oil and gas trucks can’t make it up the mountain. When the heat goes out, your water pipes can freeze, bust, and then flood your house when it thaws back out. I’ll do my best to plow our roads, but please try to stay off of them during winter weather if you can. If you’d like for me to check on your house through the winter, just let me know.

The Early Settlers of Broad Branch

Before Amber Ranches existed up Broad “Branch” (small creek), my ancestors settled this area of the Buladean community of North Carolina during the years following the American Revolutionary War. These original white settlers of Broad Branch were Ledfords, Ingrams, Streets, Troutmans, Garlands and Mosleys. These early families lived next to each other, married into each other, and are buried together in the various graveyards up Broad Branch Road.

My mother Ilo Yvonne Hughes Hardin was born and raised up Broad Branch Road to Lawrence Hughes (1938-2016) and Shirley Whitson Hughes (1937-present) on the family farm in 1965. My family had 10 acres of apple orchard up Broad Branch Road until the 1980s when they cut them down for cattle pasture and hay production. Their farm started at my Grandma’s house and ended at the entrance of the present-day Amber Ranches. They also raised chickens and tobacco. In fact, I still have memories of my Granddaddy raising tobacco in the Pond House field.

My Granddaddy Lawrence Hughes was the original caretaker of the Amber Ranches housing development and was the son of Ernest Hughes (1914-1998) and Ilo Ledford Hughes (1921-2001). It was my Great-Grandma Ilo Ledford Hughes’ side of the family that owned land and farmed up Broad Branch and present-day Amber Ranches.

A Little Family Genealogy

My Great-Grandma Ilo Ledford Hughes was the daughter of Rex Ledford (1888-1956) and Lettie Ingram (1888-1973), both of which were born and raised up Broad Branch. Rex Ledford was the son of Milton Ledford (1847-1907) and Emaline Street (1854-1922), who were also Broad Branch inhabitants. Milton Ledford was the son of Susannah Ledford (1835-1910), who lived up Broad Branch with George Washington Troutman. Susannah Ledford’s father was Frederick Ledford Jr. (1788-1839) and her mother was Prudence Curtis (1791-1860). Frederick was the first Ledford that I know of that lived up Broad Branch. The Ledford Cemetery is next to the pond at the Pond House property and it was this family that built the drive-thru barn and rock wall along Broad Branch near the entrance of Amber Ranches. My Granddaddy told me that there was once a chestnut log cabin on the edge of the hay field next to a spring just on the other side of the drive-thru barn that was torn down in the 1970s.

My Great-Great-Grandma Lettie Ingram’s parents were Charles Ingram (1854-1946) and Biddy Garland (born 1865). Charles was born just across the state line in Carter County, TN, but his wife Biddy Garland was born in Mitchell County and they both lived out their days up Broad Branch. There were plenty of Garlands and Ingrams in modern-day Mitchell County before Charles and Biddy, but they were the earliest ones that I know of who lived and died up Broad Branch. In fact, their old farm is just below the entrance of Amber Ranches. My Granddaddy Lawrence Hughes was born on Blevins Branch in Buladean (one holler over), but grew up on this farm on Broad Branch. Our family still farms hay on this property today. The Ingram Cemetery is just behind this house in this hay field.

My Great-Great-Great Grandma Emaline Street’s father was Stephen Street (1825-1885). He served as a Captain in the Union Army’s 3rd NC Mounted Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He and his wife Nancy were born and raised in Buladean (back then it was called Magnetic City due to the iron in the mountains).

My Great-Great-Great-Great Granddaddy Captain Stephen Street’s father was William Clingman Street (1799-1854). He was born in McDowell County, but died in Buladean (Magnetic City). He is the first Street that I know of who lived in the Buladean area.

The Beginning of Amber Ranches

One of my last relatives to own property on what is now Amber Ranches would be Wheeler Ledford. He died in 1961 and was the brother of my Great-Great Granddaddy Rex Ledford. He owned what we now call “The Pond House” as well as Phases 1-3 of the Amber Ranches development. My Granddaddy Hughes grew up next door to Wheeler Ledford and remembered him well. It was Wheeler’s and my Great Grandma Ilo Ledford Hughes’ side of the family that built the drive-through chestnut barn at the modern-day Pond House property (probably my Great-Great-Great Granddaddy Milton Ledford). Wheeler lived in a little cabin next to a spring just on the other side of the barn next to the creek. The modern-day pond did not exist in Wheeler’s time.

When Wheeler died in 1961, his family kept the land for a few years, but eventually sold it around 1980 to a South Floridian lawyer named Sandy Muchnick. The Muchnick Family built the pond and the “Pond House” that we know today. The Muchnicks used the property as a summer vacation spot until they finally sold it to a man named Bob Gowens in the 1990s. Bob Gowens was from the mid-west and got a job in Spruce Pine working for the local mines. He lived at the Pond House full-time for a few years but eventually sold the property to the future developers of Amber Ranches when he lost his job.

One of the developers of Amber Ranches was named Benji Garfinckel. He was a childhood friend of Sandy Muchnick’s son Charles “Chuck” Muchnick. Although Chuck’s family no longer owned the property, his friend Benji gave him the job of overseeing the development of Amber Ranches. My Granddaddy was also then contracted to maintain all the roads, roadsides, commons areas, and unsold lots of the development.

Charles “Chuck” Muchnick died by suicide in 2009 and my Granddaddy died of cancer in 2016. Charles was buried in our Ledford Family Cemetery due to his love of my Uncle Wheeler Ledford’s farm (Pond House property) and Amber Ranches. By this time, Amber Ranches had been fully developed and only the regular maintenance of the development was necessary. My Uncle Henry Street took over my Granddaddy’s job of maintaining Amber Ranches until he died tragically in a 2019 track-hoe accident.

Junior Ingram Farm (later known as “Doc’s Place,” “Phase 4 of Amber Ranches” and “Roan High Preserve”

Most HOA members of Amber Ranches refer to Junior Ingram’s farm as “Doc’s Place,” “Phase 4 of Amber Ranches,” or “Roan High Preserve.” I need to do more research on who owned the farm before my cousin Junior Ingram, but I remember this piece of property in the early 1990s simply as “Junior’s Place.”

Junior Ingram was a cousin of mine that had a potato and cattle farm up on the mountain. His permanent residence was down off the mountain, but his farm and cabin are up high on the mountain and now part of Amber Ranches.

When Junior died, a doctor from Nashville, TN bought this farm and used it as a hunting property. This is when people began referring to the farm and cabin as “Doc’s Place.”

This doctor from Nashville owned this property while Phases 1-3 of Amber Ranches were being developed. Due to the property’s beauty and the fact that it was next to Phases 1-3, the developers of Amber Ranches eventually offered “Doc” enough money that he finally sold it to them.

Eventually the farm was divided into lots that went up for sale. There are a few ways to access these properties. From Amber Drive, you can take Amanda Avenue, which turns into the Old Bald “Ball” Road, which goes right across the farm and in front of Junior/Doc’s cabin.

From Amber Drive, you can also turn up Nicolas Knoll Road to access these lots (some are still for sale).

And then there’s the old route that Junior Ingram use to take, which is to go up the Old Bald “Ball” Road from Blevins Branch Road. Junior would drive his tractor, as well as his truck and trailer full of cattle up this old road back when I was a boy. It’s a long hike, but definitely worth it to those who like to get out and walk around the woods.