Moses H. Cone
Moses Herman Cone (June 29, 1857 – December 8, 1908) was an American businessman, textile entrepreneur, conservationist, and philanthropist of the Gilded Age who was active in the eastern and southern United States. He began his career ...
estate, also called Flat Top Manor, is on a hillside overlooking the lake, whose elevation is . Cone constructed two lakes on the property: Trout Lake and Cone Lake. The lakes are within
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park
The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park is a country estate in honor of Moses H. Cone in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. It is on the Blue Ridge Parkway between mileposts 292 and 295 with access at milepost 294. Most locals call it Cone Park. The park i ...
which is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
Description
Bass Lake is found in
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park
The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park is a country estate in honor of Moses H. Cone in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. It is on the Blue Ridge Parkway between mileposts 292 and 295 with access at milepost 294. Most locals call it Cone Park. The park i ...
which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. The lake's area is with a maximum depth of . It was previously known as Cone Lake. It was built . The lake was named Cone, because Moses H. Cone built two lakes on his estate: Trout Lake and Cone Lake. The estate was built on a hillside overlooking Cone Lake. The lake is supplied by two
perennial
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...
branches of Middle Fork of the New River. The lake is encircled by an approximately trail open to hikers and horsebackers. The present
earthen dam
An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and ...
that forms the lake was built in 1936 and modified in 1991. The dam is high and impounds of water. The dam, lake, and entire park are owned by the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
, having received it as a donation from the
Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital
The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, also known as Moses Cone Hospital, is a 517-bed tertiary care facility located in Greensboro, North Carolina. The hospital opened in 1953 on North Elm Street as a 310-bed community hospital. Moses Cone Hospit ...
, to which it was bequeathed upon the death of Cone's widow in 1947.
History
Cone specified the construction of a long wide earthen dam with a clay core and a dual-channeled stone-lined
spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...
to handle overflows. A
sluice gate
Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...
was included to allow the lake to be drained. A small island was built within the lake as a focal point, and water lilies, specifically ''
Nymphaea odorata
''Nymphaea odorata'', also known as the American white waterlily, fragrant water-lily, beaver root, fragrant white water lily, white water lily, sweet-scented white water lily, and sweet-scented water lily, is an aquatic plant belonging to the ge ...
'' were planted along the northern end of the lake.
In 1908, the Moses H. Cone estate was referred to as Flat Top Manor in Cone's obituary. The ''Hickory Democrat'' reported that Cone was buried on the property where he had an orchard with 32,000 apple trees and two large lakes. They reported that the construction of roads, buildings and the two lakes cost Cone $US500,000. In 1914, ''The Lenoir News'' reported that the Cone estate was said to have thousands of apple trees with an estimated harvest of 50,000
bushel
A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agricult ...
s. The slopes near the lake were also covered with hundreds of apple trees. Cone Lake appears on the 1936
USGS
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
Morganton Quadrangle in
Watauga County
Watauga County ( ) from the North Carolina Collection's website at the .
In 1942, the lake was drained and repaired.
In 1953, the lake still carried the name Cone Lake and it was described as a lake in the ''
Charlotte Observer
''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American English-language newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. As of 2020, it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. I ...
''. In 1956 the lake had an abundance of
rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...
and some
brook trout
The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...
.
The dam was damaged by an ice flow in 1986, leading to it being drained again. An inspection three years earlier by the
Bureau of Reclamation
The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...
had determined the dam did not meet the current federal dam safety guidelines and a major renovation was performed in 1990. The sluice gate was modernized, but the spillway remained historically intact as are the dam banks which continued to be covered with mowed grass. The lake was refilled and restocked with fish.
In 2021, the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
led restoration work on the grounds of the
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park
The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park is a country estate in honor of Moses H. Cone in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. It is on the Blue Ridge Parkway between mileposts 292 and 295 with access at milepost 294. Most locals call it Cone Park. The park i ...
. The renovations on the grounds included the construction of restrooms near the lake.