A Fragile Home on July 4th

Scotland County, NC's search for economic vitality

On July 4th, there’s no place I’d rather be than at a picnic “down on the Lumbee River, where the eddies ripple cool,” in the words of local poet John Charles McNeill. This year, my wife and I plan to take friends visiting from Germany, Israel, and Boston with us to the picnic, to give them a taste of local color. There’s a “ya’ll come” attitude among the Scottish kinfolk whose ancestors settled on this spot in the early 19th century.

Here you’ll find a strong sense of place and roots going back as many as 10 generations. Yet many descendants have flown the coop, lived in all 50 states, or exotic locales like China, Europe, Turkey, and the Arabian Peninsula. They still like to return, reminisce, and honor what seems unchanging in a constantly changing, chaotic, globalized world — these spots by the river. Sitting under 2,000-year-old cypress trees can give you a sense of peace and restore your soul.

I call Scotland County, NC — population now about 34,000, not significantly larger than when I last resided here in the early 1970s — "the land that time forgot.”

At 18, I couldn’t wait to leave. Ironically, my sons, now grown men, envy and express hunger for the strong sense of place and community that Scotland County internalized in me. Yet like the vast majority of other descendants, they cannot imagine relocating here full-time.

This place tells me who I am. I see people whose grandparents I remember, and even a few who remember my grandmother, who died in 1982.

My Scottish ancestors arrived in the region in 1739 on the Thistle as part of the Argyll Colony migration caused by the Highland Clearances, or evictions, which lasted over 100 years.

Scotland County contains Riverton, one of America's oldest continuing communities of Scottish settlers. But the year-round community is fragile. Dan Smith Jr., whom I called the laird or chieftain, died last August at age 82. He eschewed the label “clansman” because he remembered real klansmen in the region when he was young. The vineyard he and his wife Tina founded — Cypress Bend — is for sale. Nearby St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, after 67 years, shut its doors in May. The Scottish Heritage Center, which chronicles illustrious regional history, has been packed up and put into storage.

In March, the Wall Street Journal did a front-page profile of this isolated rural county as a bellwether. A long-time Democratic stronghold, it swung to Trump by a few hundred votes. “A Poor North Carolina County Is Counting on Trump for a Comeback. Scotland County ushered in Republicans locally, too. ‘We better see some relief.’ “

There isn’t likely to be much relief for Scotland County in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill the Senate just passed, which cuts Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies by $1 trillion dollars over 10 years.

Scotland County, 30 miles south of Fayetteville, 20 miles south of Southern Pines, is already hurting economically. It’s one of the poorest counties in North Carolina. Maybe it will become a bedroom community for more prosperous counties nearby. But in doing so will it lose its sense of identity, place, and unique history?

It still has the Scotland County Highland Games, which are held each year during the first weekend in October and attract as many as 9,000 people from around the country. My wife, a native of Indiana, is already talking about booking a B&B that weekend because she enjoys the games so much.

“You’re really lucky,” a visitor told me recently at a relative’s memorial service on the banks of the river. “Few people in the U.S. have such deep roots anymore. I feel like I’ve walked into a novel.”

Yes, but will the novel continue, or is it nearing its final chapter?

Beacham McDougald is the bard of Scotland County. A long-time funeral home proprietor, he seems to know everybody and has an amazing sense of history. For at least 15 years, he posted stories on Facebook about the county and region, Scottish history, and the exchange program he helped establish between Laurinburg and Oban, Scotland.

Beacham is the well-deserved winner of the NC Governor’s Order of the Long Leaf Pine award for “significant contributions to the state and their communities through their exemplary service and exceptional accomplishments.”

Yet he has been mysteriously banned from Facebook by artificial "intelligence." Many of his great stories from local history may be lost. But he now continues to produce and reconstruct them on Substack.

Rep. Garland Pierce (D-Wagram) presents Beacham McDougald with the award.

Related:

Riverton: A Hidden Gem in Scotland County (Laurinburg Exchange)