From Staff Reports 

FLAT ROCK —  The National Park Service recently approved $1,081,600 for repairs to the Front Lane dam at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, according to an Aug. 16 news release from the National Park Service.

The funds will be available at the start of the new federal fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

 Repairs tentatively will begin in mid-2025, after design, compliance and contracting requirements are met, Tom Avery, visitor services manager for the Carl Sandburg Home, noted in the news release.

“Repairs to historic structures like this often take nine to 12 months,” the release added. “An estimated repair completion date is mid- to late 2026.”

The Carl Sandburg Home, known as “Connemara,” is located at 81 Carl Sandburg Lane in the village of Flat Rock, near the city of Hendersonville.

It was the home of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and writer Carl Sandburg. Though a Midwesterner, Sandburg and his family reportedly moved to this home in 1945 for the peace and solitude required for his writing — and the more than 30 acres of pastureland required for his wife, Lilian, to raise her champion dairy goats. Sandburg spent the last 22 years of his life on this farm and published more than a third of his works while he lived there.

The 264-acre site includes the Sandburg residence, the goat farm, sheds, rolling pastures, mountainside woods, 5 miles of hiking trails on moderate to steep terrain, two small lakes, several ponds, flower and vegetable gardens, and an apple orchard.

As for the repairs, they only will affect Front Lake dam, built in the 1850s, which failed in August 2022 as a result of combined elements — including the dam's age and corrugated metal pipe decay.

Avery said the repairs will "reinforce the eroded left side of the earthen dam, replace the faulty corrugated metal pipe with a high-density polyethylene pipe, slow down water seepage and filter out sediment."

Meanwhile, CSHNHS Superintendent Polly Angelakis was quoted in the release as saying, "We are grateful for the support of our visitors, partners, elected officials and other community members through all of this, We are eager to repair this significant feature of our historic landscape. Front Lake bridge is built on part of the dam. Repairs will also restore access to this bridge, which is our main pedestrian entrance."