Keeping Watch: City of Creeks
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- Belton, Jonathan oral history interview, 2014 September 1
- Jonathan Belton describes his childhood activities playing with his friends in Briar Creek adjacent to the neighborhood of Grier Heights in Charlotte, North Carolina. He describes catching tadpoles and digging out gray clay from the banks of the creek to make ashtrays and other articles. He remembers spending time in a place that he and his friends called the "Big Boy Hole" swimming hole, located behind the Mint Museum close to Randolph Road. Mr. Belton also discusses his education and participation in swimming programs, as well as the difficulty his peers and older acquaintances in his neighborhood used to have in learning to swim. He concludes the interview with reminiscences of being a black student at the virtually all-white Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, and the lingering racial propaganda spread by white American soldiers that he encountered when he visited Korea in the 1980s.
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- Cherry neighborhood group oral history interview with Doris Gibson Dennis, Ruthie Grier Hamlin, Charles L. Patton, Everett Taylor and Richard Perry, 2014 August 16
- Five men and women describe growing up in the Cherry community in Charlotte, North Carolina during the 1940s and 1950s. They recount their adventures with the creeks and their experiences with new technologies such as refrigerators and televisions. They discuss the growth and development of Charlotte, particularly the many new roads and buildings.
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- Grier Heights group oral history interview with Hawthorne Broadway, L.C. Clifton, Willie Davis, Marvin Price, and Porgie Wallace, 2014 September 1
- Five men, who grew up in the Grier Heights neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina during the 1940s and 1950s recall swimming in the local creeks. and specifically in a place that they called the "Big Boy Hole," on Briar Creek behind the Mint Museum.
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- Haire, Wenonah oral history interview, 2015 February 13
- Dr. Haire describes some of the traditional uses that the creeks have been used for in the past and present by the Catawba Indians. She also discusses the concerns that come from being south of the creeks in Charlotte/Mecklenburg County. She stresses that it is important that we are all responsible for taking care of the creeks; it’s not just one entity but all of us. She relates the folklore of the Yehasuri, which were known to have resided in creek banks and recites a Catawba Indian water creation tale.
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- Hall, Curley and Laura Rankin oral history interview, 2014 May 27
- Laura Rankin and Curley Hall discuss attending baptismal services while members of the Shiloh Baptist Church on Elmin Street in Reid Park, Charlotte, North Carolina. Curley Hall describes living in the old Brooklyn neighborhood in Charlotte and being near the Thompson Orphanage. Curley Hall relates her experiences gathering water from a natural spring for the first few years that she lived there; Laura Rankin relates living in a section of the neighborhood that had one municipal spigot where she could get her water. The two also discuss what public transportation was like for them during that time.
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- Rickey Hall oral history interview, 2014 May 27
- Rickey Hall recalls his childhood adventures swimming in Irwin Creek and its tributaries in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He imparts the importance of creek greenways for the communities in Charlotte. He discusses the importance of natural springs as a water resource to residents who first moved to the Reid Park neighborhood, and he relates some history of Reid Park.
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- Ron Hare oral history interview, 2014 July 16
- Ronald Hare discusses his contributions to a flood mitigation project done by Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He relates the process by which houses were acquired by the county and then torn down in order to turn the area into an ecological garden and natural floodplain. He describes living in Hidden Valley, its associations, and living in the Cherry community as a child.
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- Ed Menhinick and Pozy Menhinick oral history interview, 2014 May 9
- Dr. Ed Menhinick discusses his history from the late 1960s until around 2010. He remembers how he got started in finding fish in the streams of North Carolina. He discusses doing environmental impact reports for the county and the state on the condition of creeks and streams before and after building. Talks about pollutants like silt, what kind of values were looked for when doing the assessments and what kind of fish would be found in a dirty versus a clean stream. Tells a few tales of adventures in the streams. Recalls a trucking company that was dumping sewage into a creek in Mecklenburg County during the 1980s.
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- Rusty Rozzelle oral history interview, 2014 February 5
- Rusty Rozzelle, manager of the Mecklenburg County Water Quality Program gives an historical background of the treatment of creeks and streams in Mecklenburg County. He discusses pollutants and methods to restore the creeks. He describes laws and ordinances put in place to protect the streams and their effect. He discusses flooding problems, particularly how flooding is exacerbated and how it can be mitigated.
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- Pat Stith oral history interview, 2014 July 28
- Pat Stith recalls his first investigative journalism report as a newspaper reporter for The Charlotte News. He discusses his investigation of pollution and the piping of waste by industry into Little Sugar Creek and other creeks in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also reminisces about some of his favorite investigations as a reporter, including the Pulitzer Prize-winner article "Boss Hog."
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- Bill Stokes oral history interview, 2014 July 31
- Bill Stokes of Lancaster, South Carolina discusses his hobby of kayaking up and down the Catawba River, and his hobby of collecting the balls that he has found floating down the river. He describes the condition and quantities of trash that come out of the confluence of Sugar Creek and the Catawba River.
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- Les Todd oral history interview, 2014 September 13
- Lester Todd, father of interviewer Tenille Todd, who grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina near Freedom Park, remembers playing in Little Sugar Creek as a child. He refers to Little Sugar Creek as "Sugar Creek," which was common in Charlotte for much of the 20th century.
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- Grady Walker oral history interview, 2014 February 4
- Grady Walker discusses his memories of living next to Irwin Creek throughout his entire life. He recalls never having used the creek for swimming because he always used swimming pools. He discusses how growing up near the creek affected his life.