Government documents often help tell the story behind the story. Here are some new additions to The Xpress Files, our online archive of public records on hot topics:
• More Parkside documents, including recent resolutions regarding the controversial land sale passed by both Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. (Click here and scroll down to the June entries in the Parkside chronology to see those.)
• An extensive collection of papers about Camp Summerlane, the short-lived summer camp in Transylvania County that is the subject of the Xpress investigative series, Cruel Summer. Recent additions include: the right-wing newsletters Tocsin and Herald of Freedom, both of which drew critical attention to Summerlane; a hopeful, conciliatory statement from the camp to the Rosman Chamber of Commerce, correspondence between camp staff (and a camper’s father) and the office of Gov. Terry Sanford, state Highway Patrol reports on the July 11/12, 1963, attack on Summerlane, and an FBI memo alerting the governor that a federal investigation was opened to look into the matter.
• The federal lawsuit filed by North Carolina against the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is currently in federal court in Asheville.
• New documents from the Pack Square Conservancy concerning the long-awaited construction in the downtown park.
— Jon Elliston, managing editor
