Eight rerouted rivers, 37.5 million cubic yards of moved earth, nine deep mountain cuts and $250 million dollars later, Madison County completed the largest earth-moving project in North Carolina history. Meet the nation's newest interstate.
Madison County photographer Rob Amberg, an instructor at the Center for Documentary Studies, shows the highway's effects on his community in The New Road: I-26 and the Footprints of Progress, now on display in the Special Collections Gallery in Perkins Library. The exhibit is the second of three installments focusing on his home county. Following Sodom Laurel Album, which depicts rural life, The New Road captures the unintended effects of modernization. The final episode, tentatively titled Today's Mountaineers, will look at changing demographics post-development.
"Change has always been a subject that interested me," he said. "With the new interstate, it was clear that the old indigenous mountain culture was dying out. The whole community was evolving into something different."
Amberg began taking black-and-white photographs of the construction in 1994, and the project soon turned into a full-fledged body of works illustrating people and places affected by the interstate.
"[Amberg] focuses on where he lives," said Karen Glynn, visual materials archivist at the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library. "He is shooting his own community, his own mountain. He can give us a glimpse into that community in an in-depth way."
As an oral historian and photographer, Amberg emphasizes the stories behind each snapshot. Some members of Madison County experienced nearly as much upheaval as the earth itself. Some even witnessed the remains of their loved ones being excavated from their graves to make way for the road.
"The photographs of the graves and excavations made me think about what it meant to remove an enormous swatch of earth from a place that's been settled for a couple hundred years," Glynn said. "[He is] teaching us the full spectrum of what 'change' or 'progress' means in a way that I haven't seen before."
Though it came at a price, Amberg still admits that the highway is beautiful and has redeeming qualities.
"I love it and hate it," he said. "It really is a much safer road for modern-day traffic, so that change was a really positive thing for the community."
The beauty of the highway is evident, but Amberg hopes his collection will cause viewers to consider the underlying "other stuff."
"I hope we can understand that there are people who were really defined by this road," he said. "Their lives were affected; their loved ones' graves were dug up. I hope young people can gain an interest in what happens behind the scenes, for any type of progress usually comes at the expense of others."
To the citizens of Madison County, the interstate cost more than $250 million. But a 100-year-old farm, a family cemetery, a church-these things are beyond price, he said.
"As a society, we need to recognize the cultural, spiritual and societal value along with the tangible value of things," Amberg said. "Until we do that, we'll never understand."
The New Road: I-26 and the Footprints of Progress is on display in the Special Collections Gallery through March 29.
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