New Aerial photos of our New Campus

This is the most recent aerial photograph of our main building. Your point of view is from the south end of the building. You can see the three classroom wings, the commons, and the front areas.

The kitchen and cafeteria is in the center bottom of the photo. The dining area extends out the nearly half of the length of the white roofed "wedge" in the center. On the right side of the cafeteria is the auxiliary gym. North from that is the main gym, the main entrance (@ 3:00), the Media center and the theater (@2:00) and the Band room (@ 1:00).

This is the same South view of campus as the photo above. It is a great shot to see the full length of the developing campus. The New River is on the bottom right side of the photo. You will notice how the Second practice field sits below the main stadium,

Here we are flying in from the East approaching campus.

Turning around and approaching from the West in this photo. The newest section of the Boone Greenway trail can be seen in the bottom right and center. It parallels our campus along the slope of the stadium. What a nice addition to the town and community this section became. It was worked out to be created with funding from the Obesity Grant and used our local Town of Boone maintenance and construction crews. Another excellent example of community cooperation between agencies to create our future together!

This fly in is from the North and looks at campus from above our main driveway. Highway 421 would be at the bottom of this photo. I think it is important to look at the size and scope of this project. We have not just built a new high school. We have created an entire CAMPUS. And that is HUGE.

All aerial photographs are provided courtesy of SkySite:

SkySite Aerial Photography ~~~ click here
North Carolina's most consistent and reliable source for aerial photographs! Thanks for allowing me to post your photos for our community!

Pioneer Stadium ~ 2010 ~ Where we are and how we got here!

WOO HOO!They have painted the end zones :-) WATAUGAON WATAUGA!

GO PIONEERS

This is the most recent aerial photograph of our new stadium with artificial turf installed!

Mighty Mighty Pioneers

This was the stadium when we acquired the property in 2007.

This is one of the earliest aerial photos. The stadium will be just about in the center of the lower half of the image.

My first attempt of a panoramic stitch to show the excavation of the stadium site grading and rock removal.

We were excited then, and we are still excited to see the development of a first class stadium on this site. Notice all of the rock that had to be removed to grade out the field.

This is what lies beneath the surface ~

and this too, our storm water retention system is buried under our stadium

It is a massive system of connected pipes that will hold run off storm water and gradually disperse it

Once the system was put in place it was refilled with sand and clay and graded to just about 12 inches below playing surface

Upon the graded surface, specified gravel mix was added to raise the next twelve inches

In this photo you can see the precision of the gravel grade as it is being prepared for artificial turf

The runs are in place for track long and broad jump

The rolls of turf are turned out and temporarily placed and what happens???

A mighty wind rolls through out of the west and wastes the days work overnight!

But quickly the next day all pieces are put back in place and readied for gluing

and stitching and anchoring it in place

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas ~ well, bright green anyway!~

In these aerials you can see the scale and placement of our stadium. It is off the main parking lot on the south side of campus.

This is a field we can play on for many many years to come. The artificial turf will save us money, be environmentally green, and be more sustainable over the years than natural turf which has to be fertilized, watered, groomed, and sodded regularly at the cost of nearly $30,000 annually.

It was a wise decision to go with artificial turf on a field that will host football, soccer, lacrosse, and many other competitors for many years to come.

Now it is Done ... (all but the finish lines ;-)

A Favorite Building View

Scroll over and click to enlarge!

I like this view of our school. I think it is one of the best angles to see the front side of the entire building. It is seen from above the tennis courts on the east side looking west.
You will see Howard's Knob in the background behind our school. I like seeing the roof line and the changes from here. You can also view the main entrance in the middle of the school, and get a sense for the length of the building. It is one and a half football fields long!

FYI ~ I did PS out one light pole and several construction vehicles to show this clean overview. You should click on it and look around, it is scaled for large viewing. See if you can see where I photoshopped it! Enjoy!