Is Fonta Flora a Lost Town or a Myth?

Have you heard the legend of Fonta Flora, the lost community that was flooded when Duke Energy created Lake James in 1923?

Stories include tales of a diverse community of white and black families living in racial harmony on lush farms – even a prize-winning racehorse farm. True or False?

Thanks to excellent reporting published in 2018-19 in the Charlotte Observer and Our State , we now know more about the community whose name now graces the state trail and the local brewery. Reporters interviewed local history buffs Patricia Page and Helen Norman, as well as Charlotte writer and descendant Valaida Fullwood.

– Chris Schroder, The 100 Companies