History
A Tribute to a Watauga Vista Hero
Many of todays Watauga Vista residents and lot owners may not have had the honor and pleasure of knowing Malcolm MacNeil personally, but his presence is inescapable in our lovely mountain community.
Watauga Vista would not exist today were it not for the love, effort, dedication, and hard work provided by Malcolm during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Malcolm truly loved Watauga Vista and even visited our community to admire its incredible fall foliage on the day before he died.
Although we all lead busy lives, I encourage all of us who are lucky enough to own a small part of Malcolm’s dream of a mountain paradise to takea a few moments to pause and pay tribute to an amazing human being who has directly or indirectly touched all of our lives.
As examples, Malcolm personally named all of the roads in Watauga Vista (and had a funny story explaining the origin of the name of each and every road!); he created Lake Tippecanoe, stocked it with fish, built a dock, and provided canoes for all to use (all of which provided countless hours of enjoyment to both children and adults alike); he built a community clubhouse with a kitchen and grill area that included wonderful touches like the huge wagon wheel ceiling light fixture made out of an antique wheel he dragged all the way back from a trip out west (in the early days of Watauga Vista he also outfitted the clubhouse with lots of games and toys for kids, including a ping pong table, horseshoes, and board games for rainy days); he built a community stable and during the summer he provided the community with trail horses and tack for everyone to use free of charge; he built a fire house complete with a very cool, fully functional fire truck (which he took out on holidays in the summertime to drive around while the kids of the community took turns shooting lake water out of the fire hose).
On October 31, 2011, the “patriarch” of Watauga Vista, Malcolm MacNeill, Sr., passed away peacefully at his home in Webster with his wonderful wife Joan at his side. In short, although he is no longer with us in body, Malcolm’s spirit will ALWAYS be a part of the Watauga Vista community. Malcolm walked practically every square inch of these mountains countless times over the years and knew every nook and cranny by heart (including the locations of illicit moonshine stills, old mica mines and homesteads, and rattlesnake and bear dens). And, one of his dreams was to develop an affordable mountain community in order to share this treasure with others. We all owe this very special human being a debt of gratitude for the priceless gift he has given to all of us.
So, on behalf of our entire community, I say, “Thank you Malcolm! Our hearts ache knowing you are no longer with us here on Earth, but your spirit will always be remembered and honored.”
Many thanks to resident Lois Neilson who found two original sales brochures in her home and loaned them to WVOA so they could be up loaded to our website for all to enjoy!