Cooleemee's Centennial Symbol was designed by Cooleemee native Joanne Pierce Roberts. It was presented to Cooleemee during 3rd annual Textile Heritage Day Festival and was adopted for the official Town Seal in 1998. Each element represents an aspect of Cooleemee's history.

Wagon Wheel

Most of our ancestors came down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania, through Virginia to settle in North Carolina. In addition, Cooleemee's original residents moved here from the countryside in horse-drawn wagons.

Mill

Built in 1900 from the Duke family tobacco fortunes as one of the state's largest cotton mills. Cloth production continued until 1969.

Old Wood School

Built in 1903, this was Davie County's first graded school and it stood on Watts Street at its intersection with Cross Street. Graduation from high school began in 1911.

Arrowhead

Along with the axe and feather represents the original residents of the South Yadkin River shoals and falls, where Cooleemee now stands. Many Native American items have been found.

White Oak

The name of the Kulami Tribe of Creek Indians in Alabama meant "where the white oaks grow." Jesse Pearson, whose father Richmond once owned this land, took the surrender of the tribe in 1814 and came back to name his plantaion on the Big Yadkin Cooleemee. Our town was originally called "Cooleemee Falls" after the plantation.

Spinning Wheel

The spirit of homestead self-reliance. In the times before factory manufacture of yarn and cloth, our ancestors made their own cloth from raw fibers of linen, wool, and later from cotton.

Dam

Long before there was a Cooleemee, there was the river with its amazing beauty. The river's natural fall here created power which was harnassed by men before the American Revolution. Before the Civil War there was a grist mill for grinding the farmers' corn and wheat, an iron foundry, a saw mill and a primitive textile factory.

The Old Square

In 1998, local artist Jeremy Sams of Archdale, NC, created this mural for Cooleemee's Centennial Celebration and received the Paul Green Multi-Media Award for his mural. The mural is painted on the brick wall of the gives the effect of looking through the "window of time"… where you could literally step from this lifetime into the past of Cooleemee.
Thank you, Jeremy.