The Occaneechi Replica Village in Hillsborough’s River Park was among the many places in Orange County damaged by Tropical Depression Chantal last month. The tribe and volunteers have begun clearing some debris around the area, but the village will remain closed to the public throughout a months-long rebuilding process ahead.
The palisade that surrounded the village bore the brunt of the flood damage, with about a quarter of the roughly 400 poles being uprooted and scattered around the area, likely because they had become loose and wobbly in their holes over time. The huts within the village fared slightly better, with elements like thatching and cloth being washed away but the frames mainly still in place, albeit bent and twisted in some places.
Occaneechi tribal chairman Tony Hayes said the extent of the damage was completely unprecedented.
“The village was pretty much decimated,” he said. “I’m not going to say it’s a total loss, because I think we probably could salvage some of the material, but I think it did a pretty good number on the village. We’ll have to sort of start from scratch when it’s safe for my people to go down there.”
Orange County cultural resources director Peter Sandbeck said the water reached about six feet high at the village. In previous storms, he’d never seen it go higher than two.
“At first I couldn’t get my mind around it, because we worked on this as a group of volunteers, with me at the county, helping since 2016 to get it built,” he said. “We never imagined that it would take a hit like this. Just never occurred to us. It was unexpectedly extreme damage in terms of what we were imagining a flood would do. I don’t think we ever envisioned six feet up on the palisade.”
Many poles from the palisade were uprooted and scattered during the flooding. (Photo by Ben Crosbie/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Sandbeck said the work ahead will be strenuous, but he’s encouraged by high volunteer turnout so far.
“It’s a lot of work for the volunteers to go to clean out the holes and the footing and reinstall the poles. We gotta put cedar wedges in to hold it tightly in place. Each pole is a process, and it’ll take many volunteer hours to get those put back,” he said. “We have a great crew, I think there’s been a lot of enthusiasm among some of the younger tribal members now, and they brought friends and members from related tribes, and it’s been a growing body of really strong workers who really feel a connection with the village. If we had to pay for all the labor we get on all the volunteers, it would be a huge number. Many, many thousands of dollars.”
Hayes said a significant concern at this point is the possible presence of bacteria such as E. coli at the scene, since the floodwaters could’ve been carrying sewage. Because of this, he said the recovery efforts won’t be able to begin in earnest until after the Town of Hillsborough does an assessment of the site.
The budget approved by the Board of Orange County Commissioners in June allows for an allocation of $8,000 annually for maintenance of the village, which Hayes said should cover the initial cost of materials.
“Orange County is a really good partner, and we consider them family to the tribe,” he said. “We’ve had a relationship with them for further back than I can remember, and so we’re just doing everything that we can, not only to support our members but to support our good friends in the Town of Hillsborough and Orange County to come out of this thing and create some protocols for the future and get this thing fixed.”
Beverly Payne, the Tribal Council member who oversees the operation of the village, said work will likely begin in September. Once the site is safe, the first step will be collecting and re-installing the poles for the palisade, which she hopes will be done by December. After that, the bent and twisted hut frames will need to be disassembled, repaired, and reassembled into their characteristic dome shape. This is expected to be done over the winter, with at least a few of the huts being returned to normal by the spring.
A damaged hut lies against some of the remaining poles surrounding the village. (Photo by Ben Crosbie/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Payne said while the rebuilding efforts must include ways to be more resilient to flooding in the future – since floods are likely to continue becoming more common and more severe – it’s also important to maintain historical authenticity in the use of materials and building methods. Respecting both of these necessities will be an important balance for this project to strike.
“I’ve had people who wanted to use nails and some things. I’m like, uh-uh,” she said. “We do try to stay in the late 16-1700s time period with everything. So we use what they would have used in that time. This storm was a super storm, and I’m sure that we will have more super storms like this in closer and closer time periods to each other. But I don’t know whether the village in the 16 and 1700s, what it withstood.”
She said the outpouring of community support has been encouraging, and gives her confidence in the eventual success of the recovery process.
“I didn’t realize that the village meant that much to the people in Hillsborough, the people that walk past us all the time,” she said. “I had no idea. So it gives me great satisfaction and joy now. We’ll have a village again. It’s going to be built.”
If you want to volunteer to help rebuild the village, you can send an email expressing your interest to communications@
Featured photo by Ben Crosbie/Chapel Hill Media Group.
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
