Meet the Farquhars - High Rock Lake has water

Meet the Farquhars, Lynn and Stephany. They are the owners' of
High Rock Campground and Marina on High Rock Lake, south of Lexington, here in North Carolina.



They are a happy couple of business owners this summer because High Rock is full of water, full of fish, and most important, full of people. Those people fill their campground, fill boats with their gas, and fill their palate's with the food at the marina.

This filling and blissful mood couldn't be said for the summer of 2002 when the lake dropped to 25 foot below full. That's empty, literally. All that was left of the lake was the river and creeks running lightly in their original channels.

My son Davey and I posed for this picture while doing a story on High Rock that arid summer. You can see over our shoulders just how low the lake was.



Now 3 years later and a lot of people, other than the locals, have forgotten about the drought and alleged irresponsible dam management by Alcoa that caused the lake to dry up. And based on the weekend traffic at the lake so far this year, the word is out that High Rock has water.



For the Farquhars, it's great for their economy, but as they took us on a boat ride of their little part of the lake, they pointed out that this water has caused a boom in the housing market. As of today one real estate company says there are only 45 homes available for sale on the lake. Last year at this time there was triple that number.



The price range for a lake front abode starts around $100k and works its way up to nearly a cool million. The real estate speculators are predicting a great bump in the value of these lake properties over the next few years.



That's a something potential investors are keeping a sharp eye on as development continues to grow on the lake.



I think Caron is zooming in on her little slice of Heaven there now.



I don't think intern Mike nor I fall into the this investment category. But hey, I can dream can't I?