Trains Bring Commerce and Tourism to the Appalachian Mountains

When the steam trains rolled into the Appalachian Mountains in the 1880’s, the massive export of lumber began. The railroad opened the way for clear-cutting and the widespread destruction of the mountain forestland. Numerous mill towns and logging camps sprang up along the mainline railroads, and the Champion Paper and Fibre Company became one of the largest landholders in the region. Logging operations scaled Mt. Mitchell and ran sightseeing trains to the peak which proved upsetting to tourists who decried the deforestation of the mountain, calling for the establishment of State and National Parks and National Forests. America’s avaricious appetite for raw materials to feed its industrial development—mica, feldspar, iron, quartz, copper, barite and scattered talc, sulphur, silver, lead, corundum and asbestos were mined and shipped to the North from the mountain region by the new railroads. Trains brought throngs of tourists, health seekers and investors to the mountains. The city of Asheville more than doubled its population in the first 10 years of rail access. The Railroad began promoting the region as a vacation destination, branding it “The Land of the Sky.” Tourist hotels accommodated the middle class in their visits to the new health resorts (including hospitals for tuberculosis) which sprang up along the rail lines. Religious groups also came. The Presbyterians, Southern Baptists and Methodists were among those who established more than 22 religious camps, retreats, and assembly grounds in Western North Carolina alone. The region became known as “the South’s Summer Religious Capital.”