Community Profile
From the Ashes — Elk River Club Rises with the Tide
By Tom McAuliffe
The Elk River story began in an airplane hangar in 1982, along the airstrip that still defines the private enclave outside Banner Elk. Harry and Spencer Robbins, along with brother Grover, had changed the High Country tourism industry forever by building the Tweetsie Railroad attraction in Blowing Rock, where they were born. Following a day when they could not get a tee time at the iconic Blowing Rock Country Club, Grover, the elder sibling, declared “we’ll build our own golf course.” That led to the creation of the region’s original ‘four-season’ resort along the Watauga River named Hound Ears in 1965. Success bred more development at Linville Land Harbor and the Beech Mountain Resort, now under the banner of the Carolina Caribbean Corporation, so named for what proved an ill-advised venture in the Virgin Islands that would ultimately contribute to the collapse of an otherwise dynamic enterprise.
Two consecutive warm winters, 20 percent interest rates, and the Arab oil embargo of 1973 proved the perfect storm and both Beech and Sugar Mountain resorts fell into receivership. But a decade later the surviving Robbins brothers, Harry and Spencer, who recovered the 2,100 acres that make the Elk River community, trotted out Jack Nicklaus in front of media and community leaders announcing the formation of the new entity. One hundred charter members, committing $40 thousand each, set the plan in motion, the Nicklaus group’s first signature design in the Carolinas.
Lenoir native Monty Melton would oversee the ‘grow in’ of the course and serve as greens superintendent after completing his employment at Augusta National before arriving on the scene in the spring of 1983. Little did anyone know that more than four decades later Melton would prove instrumental in the total rebuild necessitated by Hurricane Helene in the autumn of 2024.
It’s no small irony that the great flood of 1940 that wiped out the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (ET&WNC) would provide the narrow-gauge locomotives of Tweetsie Railroad fame elevating the Robbins brothers’ initial success. Elk River’s rebirth following Hurricane Helene’s destruction is testament to a community that would not give in, but would build back better.
“We had an awesome board of directors,” said Elk River Club Manager Toni Littleton. “They left our team alone to do what we had to do to restore and enhance Jack’s (Nicklaus) design in the spirit he intended.”
Melton, along with longtime crewmember Len Bauer and Chase Arrowhead were on the property in the pre-dawn hour before Helene unleashed nearly 25 inches of rain (following a steady downpour 48 hours earlier from an Ohio Valley disturbance) in five hours of indescribable terror.
“We knew limbs would be down, but as soon as I got to the maintenance building’s door, I saw the first tree fall,” Melton recalled. “We knew it was getting worse. Trees were falling every 15 seconds. We were waist deep in water. There was nothing we could do but tie down the equipment that was floating off. Len and Chase ventured out on foot and saw everything was destroyed. They spent the night in the men’s locker room.”
There was no leaving; the lone access out of Elk River was destroyed. The attention focused on the residents. “All roads were blocked by fallen trees,” Melton said. “About 3 p.m. I got to the clubhouse, walking through the driving range in waist-deep water. We made a path down the 1st hole to the fifth fairway to get to the runway and get out. There was no power. The only way to Banner Elk was walking.”
It would take four days to evacuate the community.
But just two days after Helene, relief efforts began. Planes were landing with supplies at the Elk River airstrip. “Five or six planes at a time,” Melton recalled. “Bob Littleton, our POA director, and his crew met each plane with trucks, offloading generators, water and food, even C-rations. We were clearing two feet of mud in front of the hangar doors to sort out and store it all. It was amazing. Planes were coming all day, day after day. I don’t know where all the relief agencies came from, but volunteers were everywhere.”
Long known for its community support, the Elk River’s High Country Charitable Foundation, led by Jim Ward, had already made its mark, but a second group, Elk River Helping Hands, was established only a month before Helene’s arrival. The community that was devastated was poised to make the greatest impact in the region-wide relief effort.
Helping Hands would distribute nearly $2 million in aid to their neighbors in Avery County.
All the while, attention turned to the signature Jack Nicklaus golf course that was the center of the Elk River community.
A team led by Chad Goetz of the Nicklaus design group, long a partner with the Elk River Club refining the classic Nicklaus layout, was on board with the restoration of the course virtually destroyed by Helene. Melton was joined by Banner Elk native Brad Owens, himself an Augusta National superintendent recently retired. Jamie Jones stepped in as Elk River greens superintendent, after thirty years on the crew. New hire Jack Crenshaw, a former intern at Augusta and lead man at High Hampton before returning to Banner Elk, ensured a restoration of the Elk River Club that exceeds the original Nicklaus design.
Two years post Helene, Elk River stands alone.