Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Southern Railway Cut

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  • This cut in the mountain created by Southern Railway is located near present-day Chestnut Mountain Road in Canton, North Carolina. Written on the reverse is “138-3. Southern Ry Cut in North Spur at the mouth of South Fork of Hominy Creek looking north. M. E. Norburn. June 20, 1931.” The photographers attributed to this series of images are W. C. Morse, visiting professor of Geology, and Martha E. Norburn, graduate student in Geology, both at the University of North Carolina. Norburn wrote her doctoral dissertation “The Influence of the Physiographic Features of Western North Carolina on the Settlement and Development of the Region” in 1932 under the direction of Collier Cobb. Ten years later she wrote “Asheville: In Land of the Sky” under her married name Martha Elizabeth Norburn Mead.