If you’re familiar with DuPont State Recreational Forest, a Western North Carolina mecca for hikers, mountain bikers, and waterfall chasers, you may know that there is a 476-acre expanse of land in the heart of this public tract that has never been open to the public.
Now, thanks to a grant from DuPont Corp. this land belongs to the state of North Carolina and could soon be added to the park that surrounds its boarders.
According to State Rep. Chris Whitmire (R-Transylvania), the North Carolina Council of State voted to accept the land—known as the “DuPont Donut Hole” because of its central location in the forest—on Tuesday morning.
“Persistence and follow-through are key to successfully accomplishing the most complex objectives, and this morning a major milestone in my three-and-a-half-year quest to unlock the DuPont Donut Hole and eventually bring jobs to the former DuPont industrial site came to fruition when the North Carolina Council of State voted to accept the 476-acre parcel from the DuPont Corp. as a gift to the state,” he wrote in a newsletter.
Whitmire went on to say that after preforming environmental remediation on the the site—once the largest X-ray film production plant on the planet—the state will likely utilize the ‘Donut Hole’ for emergency responder training and as a parking area for the surrounding recreational forest, offering increased trail connectivity and easier access to DuPont’s famous waterfalls.
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