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In a television drama about the Unabomber, whose basis for his bombing was to make a statement against machinery and technology’s increasing influence on our lives, the bomber explains to the arresting FBI agent an example of machinery controlling our lives.
He describes driving home at 3 a.m. on an empty street with no one in sight, and the light turns red. Everyone stops until the light turns green. The series ends with the FBI agent sitting at a red light, waiting for the light to change to green with no one around.
Had that intersection been a roundabout, the agent could have driven through without stopping.
Murphy’s first roundabout dates prior to the turn of the 20th century. The circular green space at the intersection of the center of town originally had an evergreen as a centerpiece. It was known as the Bull Moose Pen, the reason for the name lost to history.
The significance of the Bull Moose Pen’s location was it was the dead center of Murphy, the intersection the terminus of the town’s four major streets. From the Bull Moose Pen should one want to go to Tennessee, head toward Joe Brown Highway via Tennessee Street. A traveler from that center point to Peachtree would turn up Peachtree street, as would someone wishing to go to the Hiwassee river turns down Hiwassee street. Going to the Valley River? That route is down Valley River Avenue. Simple.
The evergreen in the Bull Moose Pen gave way to a fountain in 1917, when the Women’s Club of Murphy proudly unveiled their tribute to Archibald D. Murphey. Their fountain was placed in the center the Bull Moose Pen.
The fountain was made of marble quarried in Georgia, and correctly spelled Archibald D’s last name. The final “Murphy” spelling of our town differing from the spelling of the person after whom the town is named is attributed to a clerk misspelling the name in the founding documents.
In fact, Archibald D. Murphey died in 1832, six years before the Cherokee removal. While noted for his contributions to education in North Carolina, he never visited the area.
The name for Murphy was chosen by the state Legislature, most if not all of whom never visited here, either. Naming the county seat Murphy was a notable snub to A.R.S. Hunter, who settled here in the late 1820s and had an operating post office named Huntington in sight of what was to be Murphy.
The circular traffic pattern around the Bull Moose Pen was a roundabout before most of the world knew of roundabouts. Traffic routed to the right, as close examination of existing photos reveals an arrow directing the flow.
I suspect someone not knowing right from left and trying to turn to the left at the Bull Moose Pen causing an accident might have inspired the N.C. Department of Transportation recommending in 1952 that the Bull Moose Pen be abolished in lieu of a safer, more modern traffic light.
Later in the 1970s, the single red light would be replaced by the eight lights that hang at that intersection today.
The Bull Moose Pen was eliminated and the fountain, the pride of the Murphy Women’s Club, was moved to what is now Margaret Warner Memorial Park near the Konehete Veterans Park bridge.
In my teenage years, we never suspected that the fountain had once stood in Murphy’s center. Instead, we knew it more as an inviting target for bubble bath and dish-washing liquid, as it was common to drive by the fountain and see the fountain and surrounding grass decorated with waves of white soap bubbles.
Eventually, the fountain would be moved to the front lawn of the Cherokee County Museum, where it stands today.
But, as Cherokee Scout readers know, plans are for the fountain to return to its original location in the center of Murphy with the coming of the proposed traffic circle and abolishment of the red lights.
Having first encountered traffic circles while traveling outside the United States, I discovered they are easily negotiated. Simply always turn right, and if someone is already in the circle you yield. If no one is around, you zip right through.
For those who resist change, the coming traffic circle is not change more than it is a return to the
way things used to be. What was once a traffic circle replaced by red lights for improved safety will soon return to being a traffic circle – for improved safety. Go figure.
Bruce Voyles’ local history column runs every other week in the Cherokee Scout. Email him at RoadsLessTraveled@cherokeescout.com.