Hardin Brothers Landscaping

Summer Summary

As usual, the majority of the work this summer consisted of roadside weedeating. We cut a six foot wide swath on each side of our roads. This helps keep our ditches and culverts clear of new growth. This prevents our ditches and culverts from malfunctioning.

Due to Helene, our roads and roadsides get a lot more sunshine now. Helene brought down many trees that produced a lot of shade. French Broad Electric also cut down and limbed up a lot of trees for our power lines. This extra sunshine has allowed our roadside vegetation to flourish.

Every roadside at Amber Ranches was cut back 4 times this year. The wildflowers under our power lines were left to bloom for our pollinators. Eventually the wildflowers are cut back too, but not until they’ve gone to seed. We are cutting them back now. We will continue cutting the stalks, briers, and tree saplings throughout the fall and winter. If these areas aren’t cut back, trees will eventually replace our wildflowers and also grow up into our power lines.

Besides weedeating, the usual ditch and culvert cleaning and road scraping/grading went on this summer. Despite all the construction traffic, our roads have remained in good shape. Whenever there is road damage, please be patient. We can only scrape roads after a rain on account of loosening the gravel enough for proper grading. The roads can’t be too wet or too dry.

Photos of Summer

Fall 2025 Update

Now that Fall is here, we’ve switched gears and have begun focusing on leaf removal and powerline blade weedeating. We’re also using chainsaws to cut limbs, stumps, and roadside debris from the trees that have fallen. Now that most of the leaves are down, we’ll use backpack blowers to blow off every road, ditch and culvert.

It’s important to remove leaves and sticks so that our ditches and culverts work properly. It’s also important to get the leaves off the road so that it’s easier to spread gravel and plow snow.

If you’d like for us to blow leaves out from around your house and driveway, please let us know. My brother and I do side jobs throughout the year and this is one of the services that we offer. We also clean out gutters, cut trees, limbs, clear brush, sell firewood, etc.

Silver on Unaka Mountain

Most people born and raised in Buladean have heard stories passed down about the Lost Silver Mine on Unaka Mountain. Amber Ranches is on the side of Roan Mountain, but we look out towards the Unaka. In the picture above you can see the Unaka in the distance. This picture was taken from my front porch at Junior’s (Doc’s”) place.

The word “Unaka” comes from a similar Cherokee Indian word that means “white.” Sometimes the fog can make the mountain look white. Back in the old days, this mountain was covered in American Chestnut trees. These trees have a white bloom in the spring, thus making it look even whiter at times. Sadly, a fungal blight from Asia killed off nearly all the chestnut trees in the region from 1904-1950).

Anyways, the story of the Lost Garland Silver Mine goes back to the War Between the States (1861-1865). Like many in the region, the Garland family of Buladean were Unionists during the War. The law forced them to join the Confederacy but they soon deserted to enlisted with the local Union forces.

The original permanent white settler of Buladean was a man named Gutridge Garland. The Cherokee only hunted this region. The European pioneers had already moved west. Gutridge was a Revolutionary War veteran from eastern North Carolina. He received a land grant from the United States for his service during the war and eventually settled in Buladean. Gutridge Garland’s descendants served in the War Between the States. They are the ones who had the silver “mine” on Unaka Mountain.

After losing the Battle of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the tide of war had shifted to the Union’s advantage. By late 1863, the Confederacy’s war effort in Tennessee and the west was nearly over. Having served in the Confederacy, the Garland family was aware of the Confederacy’s effort to move gold, silver, etc. from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Richmond, Virginia.

Upon learning about this plan, the Garlands stole a load of silver from the Confederacy. They then stashed it away on Unaka Mountain. But, there was a problem. They couldn’t just sell or trade the bars of silver that they’d stolen. They had to find a way to mint and mold these bars into currency.

Eventually, they discovered someone who worked up North that had ties to the family. This person worked for the US mint and provided them with molds. These molds were used to make fake “Morgan” silver dollars. The Garlands would go up on Unaka Mountain. They brought the bars of silver down on mules to Beans Creek in Buladean. There, a blacksmith’s shop would mint and mold them into silver dollars.

So as not to draw attention, the Garlands knew they couldn’t spend these fake silver dollars locally. This is where the infamous Outlaw Whitson Brothers come back into the story. The Whitsons and Garlands were related through marriage. The Whitson Brothers had already left Buladean years ago after murdering Kit Byrd. They were making/selling illegal corn liquor in eastern Kentucky during the coal boom at this time. The Garlands needed the Whitsons to exchange their silver coins for greenbacks (at a cost, of course).

It’s unclear how long this counterfeiting business was in operation. People say that the revenuers eventually went after the Garlands. They pressured them out of the counterfeit business. Regardless, people have searched for this lost mine for many years, hoping that there’s still some silver left.

I had a great uncle that spent much of his adult life searching for this mine on Unaka Mountain. When he died, we found maps of the mountain with all the areas that he’d searched and marked off. There are countless other stories of local people who have done the same.

Gibbs Garland, one of the original Garland counterfeiters, supposedly became very sick from handling the silver. They say his hands turned blue and had to wear gloves due to the exposure from counterfeiting.

All in all, nobody truly knows how much truth is in stories like this. These stories have been passed down and undoubtedly altered through the generations. Many folks believe certain parts of this story, dismiss other parts, or have additions to the story. Then, there are those who dismiss the entire thing as simply an old story and nothing more. Most of the information I have about this story comes from my distant cousins K. B. and S.R. Whitson. They authored a book called, “Red Hill: The Untold Story of the Whitson Brothers and the Murder of Kit Byrd.” I’ve also attained information from my Grandma Shirley (Whitson) Hughes and many of my Hughes and Garland family members.