RGNS.com

This page was last updated on:
February 22, 2010

Rabun County News
Courtesy of the Clayton Tribune
(Updated: February 18, 2010)

Man dies after getting frostbitten
A 66-year-old Clayton man died last week after he suffered from the effects of hypothermia upon being stranded outside his residence on Smith Street. William Ivie apparently went outside early Feb. 10 to get some fresh air. "I think he sat outside on the porch and couldn't get back in," said his son, Hank. Billy, as he was known, was stuck outside for about two hours before Toccoa Natural Gas employees saw him while checking meters. By that time, he had icicles on his face and a black foot due to frostbite. Hank believes his father either locked himself outside or became so disoriented he couldn't get back inside. The door at 269 Smith St., is hard to open, and his father suffered from various ailments. For starters, Billy had respiratory problems related to his emphysema, arthritis in his back and neck and mild diabetes. He also was confined to a wheelchair because he lost a leg in a railroad accident 45 years ago. "I believe hypothermia caused his organs to shut down," Hank said. "He went into kidney failure and respiratory failure after he got to Gainesville." The Toccoa Natural Gas employees called their supervisor, who dialed 911 about 8:55 a.m. Feb. 10. He was taken by ambulance to Mountain Lakes Medical Center, from where he was transferred to Northeast Georgia Medical Center. He died there the next evening. Clayton police officer Ryan Hamilton said Ivie was "alert and conscious" when he first arrived at the residence. His roommate wasn't home at the time. Some may know Ivie for his interest in moonshine history. He had a booth for three years at Georgia Mountain Market, where he sold three books he produced and had old stills on display. He also sold moonshine collectibles. "He had a lot of little displays that he'd made of liquor stills and things like that," said Cary Thomas, a former sheriff's investigator who met Ivie five years ago at a moonshine festival at Tallulah Gorge State Park. Ivie, who lived in Cornelia until he moved to Clayton 1 1/2 years ago, was full of stories about liquor making in Habersham and Rabun counties.

Old railway offers trail potential 
Chip Wright, with the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission, asked Clayton City Council on Feb. 9 to consider building support for converting the former Tallulah Falls Railroad tracks into a recreational trail. Wright said the city and Rabun County needed to look at more creative economic development ideas. He said the Tallulah Falls Railroad bed was one of the most underutilized resources in the county. "One of the biggest resources you've got sitting up under your nose was in service for many years and chuckled at by many people, (who) called (it) the 'Total Failure Railroad,'" he said. "As a matter of fact it, was a pretty amazing railroad." Wright said the railroad was responsible for opening up Georgia to the rest of the world. GMRC was asked by the Georgia Department of Transportation to examine the abandoned railroad bed to see if it would be serviceable for a nonmotorized recreational trail route. He said what remained of the railroad bed could potentially be transformed into a recreational trail from Cornelia to Franklin, N.C. Using Geographical Information System technology, Wright said GMRC discovered that 90 percent of the railroad bed was still intact and would total 52 miles. "If each community in Rabun County, or the county, chose to do so, you could utilize this resource to boost local revenue and tourist dollars," he said. "You'd be linking yourself up with Cornelia and the communities to the south again the same way the railroad used to do." Wright said GMRC submitted a report to DOT with architectural renderings of where the former depots were located. He said those spots could now be locations for rest stops or bathrooms. He also suggested that the county and cities look at how the railroad bed would be affected if land is developed in the future. Funding is available for greenspace projects, he added. "How much money?" Councilwoman Debbie Chisholm asked. Wright said parks and recreation funds and federal recreational trail funds were available. Dess Oliver, who has done extensive research on the Tallulah Falls Railroad and runs the Tallulah Falls Railroad Museum in Rabun Gap, said he would be willing to give anyone a tour of the railroad line free of charge. "You're sitting on a gold mine here people," he said. "... It is truly a romantic railroad with a lot of history." Oliver and his shop students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School were working to complete an open air summer trolley to display at the museum. Oliver told council he was considering having the trolley in the Christmas parades as well.

Digital newspaper free to subscribers
Want a complete edition of The Clayton Tribune without waiting for the mail to arrive? Our e-Edition is the answer. Easily accessible on this Web site, our e-Edition gives you immediate access to this week's newspaper, plus dozens of past editions found in the e-Edition archive. And you get all the Rabun County news you need at a nearly 50 percent savings off the cover price. All subscribers can log onto the home page at www.theclaytontribune.com and select the e-Edition tab along the top navigation bar. The corresponding page illustrates where to locate the user name and password on the mailing label from the regular "hard copy" edition. Readers who subscribe to the e-edition only will be issued a user name and password once payment is made by credit card. The plus to readers is that the weekly Thursday edition is available on Wednesday evening, the same time the printed version is placed in single-copy vending locations across Rabun County.

Featured Photos

The Rabun Gap Nostalgia Society promotes fellowship among the alumni and friends of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. The Society strives to preserve the history of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
and the ideals of its founder.

RGNS.com Visitors     Archived Map 12/02/06-12/02/07 Archived Map 12/02/07-12/03/08 Archived Map 12/02/08-12/03/09

Welcome to RGNS.com

Blessed

Editor's Note: This article was originally posted on August 1, 2007; however, we thought it would be appropriate to feature it again. We believe this article hits at the very heart of what the Rabun Gap
Nostalgia Society and this website
are about.

Written by: An Anonymous RGNS Alumnus
Originally Posted: August 1, 2007

After getting home from the last Rabun Gap reunion, I found an email that a co-worker had sent asking if I had a good time. As any Gapper knows, trying to get an ‘outsider’ to understand what our get-togethers are like is rather awkward. Just how does one convey the closeness among people who, as teenagers, studied, ate, slept, showered, worked, played and worshipped together? I thought for a few moments and the best word that I could come up with was "blessed."

I was reminded at this last gathering that I am so very blessed to be part of such a loyal and fun-loving group of people as is found at typical RGNS reunions. I suspect that I am not the only former Gapper that has never had a friend outside of the RGNS circle that is so close and dear to me. Numerous Gappers have spoken of being away from Rabun Gap for years only to immediately be immersed again into the laughing and story telling and fun that have always characterized these friendships. The years peel away quickly; time is no match for a good Rabun Gap story!

As we rekindle old friendships at these gatherings, I sometimes remind myself that these all-too-brief moments of side-splitting laughter will be as dear to us in the future as the memories from previous decades are today. When I visit Rabun Gap and Dillard today, and again glimpse those hills enveloping the campus, I shake my head and ask myself, "Was I really surrounded with this beauty every day?" I hope that this awareness that was perhaps lacking in me when I attended RGNS now makes me appreciate our friendships and these get-togethers all the more.

As this last reunion came to a close on a Sunday, I was rounding up the last of my things in preparation to leave that beautiful place when I began to experience a feeling that was at once foreign and familiar. It was a sick feeling in my stomach, a nervousness that I had to search my memory for a few moments in order to recall why something told me I had felt this before. Suddenly, I was more than two decades younger and preparing to say goodbye at the end of a RGNS school year. Back then, I usually managed to avoid the worst of my dread until after commencement, when the painful reality could be put off no more. That old heartache was back after so many years! I was once again left with a longing for the next time we can get together; I find myself looking forward to it and thinking about it often.

It is ironic when I recall how bitter I felt at being ‘sent’ to RGNS originally, knowing today that the friendships I forged at The Gap and the experiences there have made me a better and much more enriched person. (Thanks, Dad) Again, these people and times make me the most blessed person I know.

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