Ben Groce calls himself a river rat.

The 80-year-old Jones-ville native says he's been on the Yadkin River since he was a boy, carp fishing, boating and living his life. Seeing Groce stand on the now defunct Hugh Chatham Memorial Bridge, it looks like he belongs there, like it is his. Groce looks out at a small rapid and a piece of weathered metal poking its head up from the water. He points and informs that the metal is in fact a piece of a steel girder from a bridge which met its fate in 1916.

"I've been a river rat all my life," Groce said. "We've set fish baskets and trout lines, baited holes for carp. I've been all over this river my whole life in boats and everything, but I never knew that was there."

The bridge, which collapsed during a major flood in 1916, was built in 1913 to replace the original covered wooden bridge, the steel beams of the collapsed bridge just now re-exposed by the recent low waters of the Yadkin.

A summer of very little rainfall, resulting in the worst drought on record since 1933, has brought the memory of the old bridge back to the surface. 91 years underwater, the steel beam is a reminder of the history of the dividing line between Yadkin and Surry counties and the connections that have stemmed this divide. In the face of local officials selecting a place for a new bridge over the river, remembering the past seems appropriate.

The bridge that collapsed in 1916 was rebuilt in the same style and served until it was torn down following the building of the Gwyn McNeil bridge.

The present dry weather is a far cry from what Elkin experienced on Aug. 14, 1940.

On that day, the largest, most devastating flood in Elkin's history caused $500,000 -- $7 million today-- in damages. According to a record found in an issue of The Tribune dated Aug. 15, 1940, the water levels exceeded the 1916 flood by nearly two feet, causing enormous amounts of damages throughout the region.

"I stood up there of the end of the bridge and I saw a log coming down the river," Groce said. "It looked kind of funny, and it got down to where I could see it, and there was a hog on it and he had his front feet over the log and here come a haystack and there were six chickens sitting on it."

A story printed in The Tribune in the same Aug. 15 issue recounted a harrowing story of a couple on their way to Blowing Rock to elope, in which the flood claimed the life of the bride-to-be, 18-year-old Opaline Smith. The 24-year-old man "watched his fiancee being torn from his grasp and engulfed in the swollen backwater." According to the story Smith was lost to the flood just as the two were being pulled to safety.

Elkin's population in 1940 was about half of what it is now, with 2,730 residents, but the town banded together to restore itself following the flood. The Elkin History book says that thousands of people from all areas came to see the devastation in Elkin.

According to it, a gas tank was dislodged, floating down river until being stopped by a down power line. The resulting explosion burned down the Chatham Manufacturing ball fields.

"During the war they came in and cut and drug out steel from the old bridge and reclaimed it for war use," Groce said. "But this right here I've never seen before," pointing to the exposed steel beam. "Used to be when you'd try to boat with a motor you had to use that (pointed left to the Jonesville border) side because you knew there was steel on the other."

While the history behind the bridges used to cross the Yadkin is rich, the building of a new bridge means the possibility for more tales to be told, both good and bad. The new bridge has five alternative locations for its placement. Both Jonesville and Elkin officials will come to a compromise on the effects of the new bridge on each municipality before choosing a suitable site.

Like the stories associated with the river and its bridges, Groce has seen many changes and tragedies during his time. He served with a Navy construction outfit in the Philippines from 1945 to 1946. He has seen a son, Allen, lose his life while on the job. Groce said he drove a truck for 36 years giving him the chance to see quite a bit.

"There was a lady when I was just a kid, you know palm reading, told me I was going to travel a lot in my lifetime," Groce said. "A little old boy never been further away than Winston-Salem, I thought she was out of her mind. But I've seen an awful lot in my 80 years."