An essay by Nathan Poole

An essay by alum Nathan Poole (fiction, ’11) appears at drafthorse:

The Building Marked 1: A Vision of Industry in the South

“It punishes me to look, though there’s comfort in the keeping, a punishing comfort.”-James Still

I. Band Mill, Graham Co. lbr. Co.

On August 14th 1916, someone in the town of Andrews, NC, mailed a hand-dated postcard they purchased from Davis Pharmacy. Unlike the scenic cards one might find today at a gift shop in Western North Carolina, this was a photograph of the Graham County Lumber Mill—not a quaint, water-driven gristmill along some backwater creek, but a sprawling and muddy lumberyard. And the mill is not simply caught here, as if playing foreground to the mountains beyond. It is the subject. To ensure we don’t miss this, the printer embossed the top of the card in small block type with the words, “Band Mill, Graham Co. Lbr. Co.”

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