Stan Hyatt:
People tend to fantasize the best of what we've had in life and what we see in life. And I think ideally we would live in a fantasy area or world where things don't change. I can remember all those wonderful times growing up, being out in the creek trout fishing, or eating popcorn in front of the fireplace with Granny. I would like to preserve that. I'd like it to stay like that and never change. But that's not reality; reality is things are going to change to some degree. I'm hoping that Madison County – and I just differentiate between thinking and hoping – but I'm hoping that Madison County does not change its basic nature and character because of this road or anything else. I'm hoping that there will be a time of stabilization where there will be enough industry to attract the people that live in the county where the kids don't move away [and] where it maintains its population. It has its own individuality separate from Asheville or somewhere else.

- Stan Hyatt, Resident Engineer on the I-26 project and Madison County resident

Interview with Stan Hyatt by Rob Amberg, November 30, 2000, Interview K-0249, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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