Past history

Not all that long ago, men in these parts used picks and axes and crosscut saws to build a logging railroad, from Pickens, SC deep into the mountains of the Jocassee Gorges. As one crew leveled a path into the sharp contours of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, another crew split and laid railroad ties for the steel rails. Shay locomotives called ‘Sidewinders’ would soon, and for a very short while, chug out of steep ravines pulling heavy railroad cars loaded with the eastern US’s last old growth trees, whose girth occasionally exceeded the height of the men who laid down these mighty giants. One good flooding rain washed out the railroad, bankrupted the timber company who built it, and left Pickens, SC wondering what happened to the promise of the largest hardwood lumber company in the United States. ~K


 

 

BOOK NOW BOOK NOW