Author: Rondarius Peele

I may not have any pictures to show the fun that I a have experienced with my friends but I want to share my overall feelings about the bullhole altogether.

There’s so much a person can say about the place that they have chosen. I just want to talk about what this place has done for me for all the times that I have found myself in the car heading this way. This place has provided be with a sense of peace and calmness that has guided a lot of the decisions that I have made in the past. I’ve had needed talks with myself regarding major life decisions and after major life events that have shaped my life to the way it is now.

Everytime I get the chance to meet somebody new I ask if they want to go with me (before covid of course) for the fact that this place has done a lot for me and could potentially do the exact same thing for somebody else who needs a place to listen to the waterfall or take a walk through one of the trails or even bring their friends who have never been so that they can share the experience as well.

I truly don’t know how long these are supposed to be but if you are ever riding to Charlotte and you’re passing the Yadkin River reroute the gps for a quick second and go to the bullhole I promise you won’t be disappointed maybe it can help you with a problem like it did for me.

I’m not going to lie I had to look up most of this information because whenever I went to Cooleemee I never went to know the history behind the town itself just went to enjoy the bullhole with my my friends.

So to start out Cooleemee used to be a mill town (cotton mill to be exact) which had about 254 families living in it around the year 2000 In Davie County on the banks of the Yadkin River.

See back then Cooleemee had a lot of the mill workers walk away from the job forcing the higher ups to force major time management for the workers that actually stayed showing them how to work a machine in a short period of time.

To fast forward in the year 2003 the bullhole not having as much history as Cooleemee itself it was a gathering spot and in my opinion it is to represent how the people of Cooleemee stuck together through their rough time and got through it.

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After I got introduced to the BullHole by my friends I would go sometimes by myself. Not to get into the water or anything but just to sit back and take into account that this place that was unknown to me has became a spot where I come to get away from my responsibilities and problems. There are a lot of spots at the BullHole because it’s also a park. There are waterfalls, fishing spots, trails, etc. So it’s pretty easy to find something to do when you’re out with people.

I don’t know if anybody else chose places that started to become a safety blanket to them. Ya know? A place that they would go when they would find themselves upset or feeling any type of way. But that’s honestly how it felt for me even though I’ve gone a limited amount of times it didn’t matter I still found myself wanting to go back and even missed school to go (yeah it even got that bad)

I’m not going to show any pictures or anything but I just wanted to share the experience I have of going here when I was upset and wanted to be alone. Even willing to miss school and be punished just to be alone and not surrounded by the people that I know. I don’t regret it but I definitely could’ve did something else but the scenery and the space to just be able to think is unmatched.

I’ve been to the BullHole a couple of times since I’ve lived in Salisbury but honestly, I don’t think anything can compare to the first time that I went. All of my friends have been here way too many times to count and they just so happened to be “BullHole experts” no one reminded me that I needed to bring old shoes in case I wanted to get into the water but hey my dumb self decided to go and I know what you’re thinking obviously I should’ve remembered myself right? Well, it “slipped” my mind too. I’ll explain why I put a pun in there.

So I wanted to get in the water it was a summer day and it was hot I mean hotter than normal since North Carolina’s weather is bipolar for no reason. But anyway I started to walk towards the water and I hear my friends murmuring in the back but I didn’t want to listen honestly but something in my gut did but I ignored it. I go in the water and the slippery rocks at the bottom caused me to lose my balance and bust my a** in front of so many people and I figured I’d want to be mad for the rest of the day but come on this place is just too gorgeous not to try to enjoy the rest of my day. Take a look at what I mean.

How could anyone continue to have an attitude when they have these kinds of views in front of them?

This place is known to most as the Bullhole but to others it is RiverPark. Where it is, is in a place right in the middle of Mocksville and Salisbury, North Carolina. The Bullhole is a very beautiful place that contains so much fun and activities, for example, it is a great fishing spot and so many people would host picnics and family events (before covid of course)

The reason why this place holds an amount of significance to me is because it used to be where me and my friends would go a lot of the times when we decided to make plans. I used to be a football player and after our Friday night games we would see who would have to work or who was busy and then make trips to hang out there and have a little gathering here and there.

My friends not being the best swimmers it was very nice to have certain parts of the park that had very shallow water for those to put there feet in to get wet or to walk around in. (Although you needed shoes because of the granite bottom and glass that might’ve been thrown in.