Blackwood Lumber at East LaPorte

Blackwood Lumber at East LaPorte. . The railroad was key to large-scale logging. In the 1880s, a railroad line was constructed through western North Carolina. Now able to move freight, lumber companies were established in Jackson County, including Blackwood Lumber. In 1922, Blackwood built a spur line of its own, establishing the Tuckaseegee and Southeastern Railroad (T&SE) with just 12.5 miles of track. The track ran from Sylva to East LaPorte, along what is now the Jackson County Greenway., Full-sized locomotives could not climb steep slopes or make sharp curves, so Blackwood, and other companies, built their own narrow-gauge tracks to connect logging to main rail lines. Shay engines pulled cars loaded with timber. Blackwood employee, Felix Hooper remembered 28 cars being pulled down Caney Fork., The T&SE train ran 8 hours a day, 5 days a week from Sylva to East LaPorte. Because it was chartered as a railroad, law required that it provide passenger service. Students rode to Cullowhee to attend school. A roundtrip ticket cost 50 cents., (sidebar) , Blackwood Lumber employeed 100 men to work in the mill and another 100 to cut logs. Families lived in company-built houses above highway 107. The company was located along Caney Fork creek, behind what is today Blackwood Road. There was a train depot, boarding house, post office, commissary, and offices. Later, a church, school, and clubhouse were added., Western North Carolina contained the last great stands of virgin forest in the eastern U.S. While timbering was profitable to be sure, the industry left devastation in its wake. Thousands of acres were stripped of trees, causing erosion, flooding, destruction of waterways, and loss of habitat., (captions) , (Above and below) Courtesy of Special Collections, Western Carolina University, The deep curve on Highway 107 with East LaPorte school visible in the center background in 1926. Caney Fork creek is visible in the foreground. Blackwood Lumber Company was located where the Caney Fork General Store now stands. Today’s East LaPorte Park is on the far left. Special Collections, Western Carolina University., Temporary railroad trestles, like these (above) were assembled along steep hillsides to bring lumber to the mill. Photograph by George Sherrill, courtesy of Bill Crawford., (Far right) Company houses lay along Helen Zachary Road. Caney Fork creek can be seen running under the 107 bridge. Special Collections, Western Carolina University. (Below right) Blackwood Lumber with stacks of timber at far right and workers’ housing to the left. Courtesy of the Zachary family., Certainly, the most destructive logging technique was the splash dam (right). Logs were impounded behind a temporary dam and, when full, the dam was destroyed, sending torrents of water and logs crashing downhill, obliterating everything in its path. Courtesy of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Archives.