Congressman Heath Shuler is credited with appropriating $12.8 million in defense spending toward settling with Swain County for the flooding of North Shore Road with Lake Fontana long, long ago. The $12.8 million is considered a down payment for the total $52 million the government is deemed to owe. Shuler reportedly did not think securing the earmark was political posturing because he grew up in Swain County. The federal government could have built another road instead of paying reparations, but environmentalists would have none of that.