Oral history interview with Nancy Holt, October 27, 1985
Subtitle: interview K-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Webb, Frances E., interviewer; Holt, Brian, interviewee; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Community activists; Country life; Social life and customs; Reservoirs; Water-supply; Community organization; Orange Water and Sewer Authority (N.C.)
Other titles: Interview K-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Nancy Holt, October 27, 1985; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Nancy Holt grew up in North Carolina's Cane Creek community, where the land played a large role in her upbringing. Despite the physical distances between them, neighbors often cooperated with each other, especially when they felt their community's existence to be in jeopardy. School and church were also important anchors for the community, she says, adding that her family's self-sufficiency informed her own sense of familial responsibility. Holt discusses the differences between Chapel Hill and Cane Creek, noting the relative isolation of the latter, where traditional values and folk wisdom were preserved over generations. Holt describes Cane Creek as largely insular, but she explains that newcomers were welcome. Both groups found common cause when the University of North Carolina and Orange County Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) attempted to build a reservoir in Cane Creek. Holt grew frustrated by the lack of political clout local residents had in the face of more politically powerful UNC and OWASA officials. She also discusses the fear tactics OWASA employed to scare residents into selling their land. Holt consequently joined the Cane Creek Conservation Authority as a lobbyist and fundraiser. She used her position with the organization to highlight the damaging effects of a reservoir in the Cane Creek community--economically, socially, and environmentally.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on July 24, 2008).

Interview participants: Nancy Holt, interviewee; Brian Holt, interviewee; Frances E. Webb, interviewer.

Duration: 02:36:19.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 121.6 kilobytes, 286 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0010, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 37 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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