RES employes cut High Falls Dam chain

Highfalls Dam advocates followed lawful procedures today after riverfront landlocked property owners’ employees followed company orders: cut the locked gate’s chain. The employees drove skid steers down the “expired” conditional easement.

According to Sheryl Comer Davis, Micah Murray Scott passed Deep River Mill’s locked gate at 1448 North Carolina Highway 22 in Robbins on the morning of Dec. 10 as the owner’s chain was cut by Resource Environmental Solutions, LLC (RES).

Scott reported the cut chain, and three sheriff’s deputies responded, along with Moore County Vice-Chairman Jim Von Canon, a public advocate for Save Highfalls Dam.

At the time of the real estate transaction in 2024 when RES purchased the 15.9 landlocked acres for $465,000, Larry Booth, the owner of the adjoining property with Deep River Mill, awarded a conditional easement.

The conditional easement allowed the new owner to use the driveway to the landlocked property as long as the dam produced energy. It expired in 2018 after Hurricane Florence’s floods when the dam stopped producing energy.

RES employees had unloaded several 10’ to 12’ long gate panels and wooden fence posts next to the driveway easement with a skid steer. They said they were told to install a gate at RES property’s entrance about half a mile down Booth’s driveway.

Meanwhile, Booth visited the register of deeds for a fresh copy of the conditional easement to hand to the RES employees.

“Booth put the company on notice. If they return, will go to court,” Von Canon said about the cut chain trespass and expired conditional easement.

“They are the worker bees,” Von Canon said about RES employees working as instructed.

Save Highfalls Dam supporters visited the area while the three deputy cars were present and shared concerns and history.

Robbins native Brad McNeil said he attended the Robbins Tabernacle meeting in 2023.

“They said we didn’t have enough money to stop them. They told us what they were going to do: tear down the dam, clean it, make a park and donate it to the county. They said they were doing this to save a minnow, the Cape Fear Shiner,” McNeil said.

Davis said she and her husband, Larry Davis, lived about five miles down the river and were concerned about losing their water. The drained river will lower property values and quality of life.

Von Canon said they, the county, had not tested Deep River’s water for contaminants near the dam where it flows next to the old Deep River Mill.

“It comes from Asheboro in Randolph. We’ll get it all cleaned up, and they’ll have filters,” Von Canon said about the plan to dam the river again and sell the water to the county, a plan that includes LKC Engineering.

Sandhills News reached out to LKC Engineering and had no reply at the time of publication. The article will be updated accordingly.

In the meantime, read the Carolina Public Press article published in Sandhills News on Dec. 10, “Cape Fear pollution tributaries: A tale of two NC rivers and cities.” It clarifies that pollution is a concern.

Dec. 10, 2025

Stephanie M. Sellers

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