Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Little River Railroad between Tremont and Elkmont

  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-8405.jpg
  • Railroads were key to large-scale logging operations. Lumber companies built narrow-gauge tracks to connect timber operations deep in the mountains to commercial railroad lines. Little River Lumber Company, established in 1901, used ten Shay locomotive engines to pull flatcars full of logs along the company railroad. Timber was hauled from deep within the Great Smoky Mountains to the company sawmill at Townsend. By the 1920s, 300,000 acres had been clear-cut.