Logging Along the Laurel Fork

Last Revised: March 08, 2007

From the National Railway Historical Society "Bulletin", around 1996.   Permission to post the article here has been requested.

Logging Along The Laurel Fork

Fred Waskiewicz

The mountains of Upper East Tennessee have always been rich in natural resources.  The need to move these resources from the isolated mountain ridges and hollows to the industrial centers of the United States gave birth to some famous railroads, such as the CIinchfield and the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina (the "Tweetsie").  These two lines were carved out of this wilderness between the late 19th and early 20th Centuries to haul coal, lumber and minerals to a growing nation.

Several small logging railroads also sprung up during this era in the area's dense forests.  Although unknown to the outside world, their importance was no less significant than that of the region's larger roads.  It was these smaller roads which brought the natural resources from remote locations to interchanges with the larger lines, from whence they would be shipped to market.  One such railroad was the Laurel Fork Railway, short-lived at 15 years and short-lined at 17 miles.

The history of the LF is sketchy.  Most company records have disappeared or been destroyed.  As those responsible for managing and operating the line are all deceased, firsthand knowledge of the organization and operation of the road doesn't exist.   Surprisingly, a few sources of information were discovered: the handful of surviving employees of the LF's parent lumber company.  Their incredibly sharp memories of the road and the mill it served, combined with the few related documents that have been found, weave an interesting story that is worth telling - and preserving.

The story begins around the turn of the century with the migration of lumbermen from Pennsylvania and Ohio into the rich, virgin forests of the southern Appalachians.  The remote mountains of Carter County in Upper East Tennessee attracted many logging operations, ranging from the large Ritter holdings to several smaller companies such as Whiting, Keystone, Bradley and Buckeye.

In 1903, the East Tennessee Railroad Company was chartered with the intent of running one leg of its line up the Laurel Fork of the Doe River to the timber resources on the Elk River in neighboring North Carolina.  Apparently, construction was never started.   In 1909, William Flinn, an ex-state senator and head of the prestigious Pittsburgh contracting firm of Booth & Flinn, Ltd., purchased several tracts of land along the Laurel Fork.  These purchases, totaling some 12,000 acres, were estimated to contain 150 million board feet of lumber and included some of the small logging operations previously mentioned.  Plans called for erection of a sawmill and construction of a logging railroad to that mill.

Before any construction began, Flinn attempted to secure a means of conveying their finished products from the mill to market.  The obvious choice was the ET&WNC, which served Carter County.  Flinn sent a letter to railroad Vice-President and Superintendent George Hardin, a summary of which is found within a report dated September 8, 1909 to the ET&WNC board of directors by Mr. Hardin.  The letter proposed that the lumber "could be taken out by a road to be built by Mr. Flinn in Hampton, or by a road to be built by him to a point one and a half mile above Pardee Point (in the Doe River Gorge) to connect with the ET road at that point, the Iatter plan contemplating making the Flinn road broad gauge and extending the third rail on the track of the ET road from where it is now at Hampton to about one and a half mile above Pardee Point."

The reference to the ET third rail reflects the fact that the line, primarily a narrow-gauge carrier, was dual-gauge at that point.  The ET board elected to refer the matter to the president and vice-president, who would choose a course of action based upon whatever "they deemed advantageous to the company."  It was this directive, as will be seen, that pitted two very strong personalities against one another and ultimately gave birth to a mountain railroad.

The matter was not resolved when the Pittsburgh Lumber Company was formed in 1910 with $300,000 in loans.  Senator Flinn was named president, L.D. Gasteiger was named vice-president and general manager, and Flinn's son A. Rex served as secretary-treasurer.   As the elder Flinn remained a silent partner for the duration of the enterprise, and as A. Rex was a quiet man with some medical problems, "L.D." became the prevailing force behind the operation.

Among L.D.'s many initial chores was securing the sought-after contract with the ET&WNC.  His contact was Superintendent Hardin, and, to the point, the two men never got along and never reached an agreement.  The issue between them was the ET&WNC's rates.  Locals cite the hardheadedness of both men as the real problem.  Other sources claim that the ET&WNC felt that it had Gasteiger "over the barrel."  Whatever the reason, bad feelings grew between the two, culminating with Gasteiger reportedly declaring: "The ET can go to hell - Flinn can lay a gold railroad into that timber."  Gasteiger refused to ship over the ET&WNC, and the planned route of his logging line was extended from the mill site for an additional six-plus miles into Elizabethton, Tenn. and an interchange with the Virginia & Southwestern (Southern) near the present intersection of Sycamore Street and Johnson Avenue.  This single decision transformed the vision of a logging road into the reality of a common carrier.  (Relations apparently did improve at some later date as the LF also interchanged with the ET&WNC at roughly the same location.)

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Bullheadedness alone is probably not the only reason for this decision.  Gasteiger was a shrewd businessman and sources have pointed out that the extension was to the railroad's economic advantage.  The line earned extra income as an originating carrier and also at the interchange.  While this action obviously benefited the lumber company, it hurt the ET&WNC.  Sulzer in Ghost Railroads of Tennessee speculates that the ET&WNC lost an estimated $85,000 a year in revenues as a result of a compromise not being reached.

On April 15, 1910, a charter was granted to the Laurel Fork Railway Company, which received its financial backing from Booth & Flinn.  Another Flinn son, George, served as president.  Construction began late that year, supervised by L.D.'s brother Harry, a lawyer-turned-engineer.  First, 600 men, with only picks, shovels, and wheel barrows, graded a 12-foot right-of-way and laid rails from Elizabethton to Hampton.  Ties cut from the small Johnson Mill in Hampton were used.  The route of the line left Elizabethton in a southeasterly direction, closely paralleling the ET&WNC for roughly two miles.  At Valley Forge, it crossed over the Doe River on the line's only truss bridge and followed the contours of Polly Mountain.  Hugging the walls of a small gorge (where the ET&WNC chose to tunnel), it followed this twisting route until breaking into the meadows of Hampton.  From there it was but a short distance to Braemar, just east of Hampton and site of the mill and Pittsburgh offices.  Class 70-3 Shay No. 1 was shipped by Lima in November, 1910, to aid in the building of this 6.7-mile segment, which was finished in June 1911.  Once completed, this rail access to the outside world permitted construction of the mill to begin in earnest.  June 1911 also marked the arrival of 70-3 Shay No. 2.

The second phase of construction took the line up into the timber stands and lived up to all contemporary expectations of how a logging railroad should look - rugged and tortuous with steep grades, deep cuts and sharp curves.  Leaving Braemar, the tracks snaked through the line's namesake creek bottom for roughly a mile before crossing a long, curving trestle.  There it began an ascent into a gorge with breathtaking panoramas.  This segment climbed 800 feet in little over two miles with grades of up to eight percent, continuing to parallel the creek (although well above the stream bed) and traveling in a southeasterly direction.  Several fills and trestles were used to bridge hollows and streams along the way.  A spectacular crossing of Laurel Fork Creek was achieved on a 85-foot-high trestle not far above its falls.  Beyond this point, the line leveled out and entered the mountain farming community of Dennis Cove at the foot of Pond Mountain.  This segment, completed in April 1912, terminated at a station named Crows, approximately three miles from the mill and 9 1/2 miles from Elizabethton.  During 1912, a wye was built at Crows to turn engines.

Shortly after the completion of the line into Dennis Cove, Camp No. 1 was established.  Skid roads were laid up Coon Den Hollow, and draft horses, some weighing over a ton, were imported from the North to begin skidding logs to the awaiting trains.  Harry Gasteiger left the project at this point, returning to Pennsylvania.

The third and final phase of construction extended the LF well beyond Dennis Cove.  The road progressed even higher into the mountains, crossing many narrow streams and ravines and continuing to play tag with the creek.  Despite the cascading Laurel Fork's rapid change in elevation, the LF's roadbed maintained a good grade with no switchbacks until finally reaching the creek's headwaters in a wide, comparably flat basin.  Here, the rail line split, with the left fork ending in "no man's land" at the foot of Buck Mountain and the right fork terminating at Bitter End, approximately 17 miles from Elizabethton.  This work was completed in 1916.

The mainline was laid with 70-pound rail and is estimated to have cost $20,000 per mile to construct.  An untold number of trestles were used to crisscross the Laurel Fork and its tributaries, the largest trestle being 200 feet long and 75 feet high.   Likewise, countless cribs were constructed to permit the line to cling to the hillsides and the banks of the stream.  "Stations" (not depots but rather sidings or survey points) along the completed mainline included Elizabethton, Valley Forge, Braemar, Crows, Keystone, Frog Level and Laban.

Fifteen miles of spurs from the main line were built along all tributaries of any size feeding the Laurel Fork.  These steeply-graded spurs were temporary in construction, built with 56- and 30-pound rail.  They often extended over the stream bed rather than paralleling it.  Some sources have claimed these spurs were narrow gauge, but those reports cannot be verified and the idea doesn't seem practical. What is known is that they provided access to timber on Pond, Walnut, and White Rocks Mountains and their construction costs were no less significant than the mainline's - $10,000 per mile.   In fact, one three-mile-long branch cost $35,000 to construct.

One of these spurs is worth mention.  It was the last spur to be built, which pierced the heart of "Tweetsie Country" - the Doe River Gorge.  This spur which connected with the mainline at the wye at Crows (Dennis Cove), utilized three switchbacks to gain access to what is called the "Big Flats" and featured grades of up to ten percent.  It was so steep that only two log cars could be pulled at a time!  Interestingly, its route coincided with Flinn's original proposal for a junction of the LF and ET&WNC.

As for the construction of the mill, nothing has been revealed that makes it unique.  It originally featured a double-band saw with a resaw and a planing mill.  However, the resaw broke shortly after installation and was never repaired, leaving only the single-band saw for the remainder of the operation.  Power was provided by two generators: a large one for the mill and a smaller unit for lighting the lumber yard.  The mill pond was man-made and fed by flume from the creek.  Besides the mill, Pittsburgh Lumber Company built offices, a power house, machine shops, a commissary, an ice house to service the commissary and community, and a large number of company houses.  The town of Braemar also boasted a post office, recreation building and its own baseball team (which L.D. Gasteiger managed as well), field and grandstand.

The LF locomotive roster included three 70-3 Shays, road numbers No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 (c/n 2390, 2391, and 2760, respectively) and two 13-2 Shays (c/n 187 and 2195.)   The larger engines, purchased new from the factory, were not delivered completely assembled.  Side rods had to be mounted at the Braemar shops.  These engines served in the woods as well as running trains to and from the mill, bringing loaded cars down in the evening and returning empties in the morning.  They also ran the interchange trains into Elizabethton during the night.  Text continued below...

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The smaller engines pose something of a mystery as this author has uncovered little information concerning them.  However, matching data that has been found with known events unfolds the following probable scenario.  Both engines were bought secondhand early in the operation and both were originally narrow gauge, converted to standard gauge at the LF shops.  Neither of these engines was assigned a road number as their intended use was apparently that of switching the mill yard.  Construction No. 2195, bought from another area logging operation, was kept only a few years and sold during economic hard times, while construction no. 187 was probably the engine called "Katie."  An older engine (built in 1887), "Katie" spent much of its time in the shops, and finally wore out.  (It was listed in Lima's dead file in 1922 and was not listed as an asset when the operation ended).

The equipment roster included two log loaders (one, a model No. 10 Barnhart, was purchased in May 1920); a steam shovel; 40 flat cars (30 of these, numbered 1-30, 40 feet in length and with 40-ton capacity, were reported in 1923); 12 service cars; and a Model T Ford on dump car wheels that was used for inspection trips.  The lumber company neither owned nor employed steam skidders.  That type of work was always delegated to man and beast or flume along the Laurel Fork.  As a freight-only carrier, the Laurel Fork owned no passenger equipment.

The trains into Elizabethton were normally 12-15 cars in length and included boxcars filled with lumber, lattice and tan bark (for the Watauta Extract plant).  Once past the early construction phase, life on the railroad settled into a more leisurely pace (except for an occasional wreck).

Little has been passed down about camp life.  The men were locals, not "boomers," and as such lived a quieter life than in some of the rowdier camps of other companies.  In all, 20 camps were set up (although possibly more were planned).  Each was manned by approximately 80 men who were housed in one large dormitory.  Normally, two camps were active at any given time.  Camps were only identified by number, but were built at locations with some pretty colorful names, such as Frog Level (No. 4), Snake Curve (No. 16) and  Big Flats (No. 20).  Work days were 11 hours long, six days a week.  Wages in 1912 were $1.40 a day, from which board was charged to the men in the camps at the rate of 40 cents a day.  The "wood hicks" of these camps primarily cut hemlock, chestnut and poplar.   (Despite the local mountain's name, walnut was rare.)  One tract alone was said to have yielded 60,000 board feet per acre.

The work day within the mill was equally nondescript.  The size of the mill work force stabilized at 200, with the same six-day, 11-hour-per-day schedule as the woodsmen and two 2 1/2-hour night shifts worked per week in the yard.  Mill wages were 20 cents per hour.  Approximately 110,000 board feet per day of lumber were produced.  At one time, over 22 million board feet of lumber sat in the Braemar yard.

Although life for the most part along the Laurel Fork was filled with the day-to-day drudgery of hard work, where there's a railroad there's bound to be a good story as well.  One of the best tales on the Laurel Fork centers around Irishman Alec "Daddy" McLain, an engineer in his sixties.  Camp Cook Nate Street remembers hearing one of the Shays moving "way too fast" while approaching one of the sharper mainline curves down from Camp No. 8.  McLain was at the throttle when the engine jumped the tracks and tumbled into the creek below.  Fireman Will Hamby had chosen not to join his captain in going down with the ship and jumped.  When the dust settled, Will clambered down the steep bank, expecting to find the worst.  The sight of the Shay on her side with the wheels still turning confirmed Will's fears that he had lost his friend.  Suddenly, McLain struggled out of the cab window and yelled at Hamby in his deep Irish accent " 'And me me owl can!  This is the first time I've ever seen 'er that I could really owl 'er!"  ("Hand me my oil can...")

While never the subject of colorful stories, L.D. Gasteiger nonetheless proved to be as much an entreprenuer as any of the Flinns.  When it became apparent that the power house's two generators would provide more power than the mill needed, he began selling electricity to the homes in Braemar and Hampton.  This service started in 1912 and was not the 24-hour service we enjoy today.  Customers were only provided electricity until 11 P.M. when the mill shut down for the night.  Another less profitable venture was an attempt to
graze goats on the cut-over land, which failed.

The topic of electric power introduces an interesting side note.  In 1909 (coincidentally, the time of the Flinn purchases) the ET&WNC planned a hydroelectric project in the Doe River Gorge.  These efforts progressed over the next few years as far as purchasing land and water rights.  Among the ET&WNC's intentions was to provide "electric current" for manufacturing purposes to towns along its routes to stimulate growth.  Braemar just happened to be in the vicinity of the proposed dam site (along with another large mill belonging to W.M. Ritter and Company).  Certainly the prospect of two large sawmills must have served as enticement for such an ambitious project; however, the ET&WNC's interest in the project died before construction ever started.  As a result, the lumber company always provided its own power.

Returning to the focus of this article, other evidence of Gasteiger's strategic vision is found within the "Manufacturers Record" of December 8, 1910, which reported that "construction of a railroad from Elizabethton has begun to Hampton, Boone and Wilkesboro, NC." This suggests that he planned on giving the ET&WNC a run for its money by invading its territory by rail.  Although a quote from an "official letter" in the periodical's next issue refuted this claim, the threat of the Laurel Fork extending into the Linville area - which would have diverted lumber traffic from the Linville River Railway (the ET&WNC's feeder line) continued to cause enough concern to be mentioned in the ET&WNC's 1913 annual stockholder's meeting.  However, the report for the following year told a different tale as "...all talk of Flynn's (sic) Road extending into this area (had) ceased."  This is due, undoubtedly, to 1914 proving to be a dismal year for Pittsburgh Lumber Company.  Lack of demand caused 12 million board feet of lumber to lie stacked in the yards.  This led to the closing of the mill, a layoff of 3,000 by the end of the year and the sale of one of the smaller engines (c/n 2195).  The picture became so bleak that the Forest Service was approached for possible purchase of the company's property.  Although the mill was to resume operation in February 1915, with some 200 employees, and 1916 was good enough to rate a ten-percent pay increase, the death knell was sounded for any dreams of expansion beyond the Laurel Fork watershed.  For the rest of its existence the Laurel Fork would remain confined to Carter County.  In fact, Luban, the LF's incorporated terminus, was never reached by rail.

Logging railroads were doomed to extinction by the very nature of the limited commodity they were built to haul and the harvesting methods employed.  The Laurel Fork was no exception; however, its demise may have been premature.  By 1924, the original tract of land had been fairly well cut over.  Most of the railroad spurs and the mainline beyond Frog Level had been pulled up, leaving 15 miles of rail left.  In February of that year, Gasteiger again approached the Forest Service concerning the sale of much of its acreage.  (All of the property was not included in the offer as the lumber company wished to retain rights to four reservations along the creek for a possible power project.)  This action coincided with the death of Senator Flinn that month and the subsequent transfer of family interests to A. Rex Flinn.  Although resources within the original tract were depleted, the mainline grade still existed that thrust towards Beech Mountain where large stands of timber presented the potential for renewed lumbering.

An unexpected natural disaster, however, dashed the hopes of any further expansion of the lumnber operation.  That event (which would spell doom in later years for two other area railroads as well) was torrential rain.  On June 13, 1924, a heavy storm transformed the otherwise tranquil Laurel Fork into a raging river, washing away all trestles, a portion of the track and roadbed, and stranding equipment.  The line was rebuilt where necessary to retrieve equipment, but by then A. Rex had lost heart.  On November 7, 1924, he filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission for abandonment of the entire line from Elizabethton to Frog Level.  This request was granted, effective in February of the next year.

Despite ICC approval for abandonment of the railroad, milling continued into 1925, when the Big Flats area was being finished and some small stands near Braemar were logged.  The fataI blow that sealed the fate of the logging operation, a most ignominious one, was dealt as warm weather returned to the mountains.  A trestle timber containing a large drift bolt found its way into the mill pond and was loaded by mistake onto the conveyor feeding the mill's solitary band saw.  The saw was destroyed when the bolt was struck.  It was not replaced and all milling ceased.  Flinn had given up.  A single bolt, not a depleted resource, wrote the final chapter to the Pittsburgh Lumber Company.

Although the mill was closed, the Laurel Fork continued operation for some time.  Its final chores included hauling rails and equipment out of the mountains, moving the remaining lumber from the yards and assisting in dismantling the mill.  Rails were straightened in Elizabethton by a Texas contractor and sold for scrap.  The disassembled mill was sold to another regional Iumber operation.  The commissary and offices were converted to private ownership and exist to this day.  As a result of the mill closure, the residents of Braemar and Hampton lost their electric service, which would not be restored until several years later.

As railroad activities were diminished, engines No. 1 and 3 were placed on the selling block by late 1925 (No. 2 had been transferred in 1922 to another Flinn operation in western Virginia).  While waiting for buyers, the two engines assisted in dismantling activities.  "Katie" sat rusting in the yards of the very railroad with which all had been engaged in heated competition - the ET&WNC - until cut up for scrap by an area business.  The two large Shays were sold by 1927, signaling the end of railroad activity.

All is quiet among the glens and glades of the Laurel Fork now.  The sounds of the iron horse haven't echoed in its mountain hollows in over 70 years, and the rhododendron grow where Shays once roamed.  Nonetheless, the Laurel Fork Railway has left a legacy.  Some 9,000 acres of the Pittsburgh tract were sold to the Forest Service and incorporated into the Cherokee National Forest.  Most of the mainline above Braemar, where chestnut ties are surprisingly still found, is now part of a system of hiking trails.  The Appalachian Trail uses that portion of the grade that climbed past beautiful Laurel Falls into Dennis Cove, although hikers aren't afforded the luxury of a trestle across the gorge - the floods claimed it back in the '30s.  The hidden cove along the creek that once was a wilderness rail yard and busy Camp No. 4 at Frog Level is now a serene, secluded sportsman's paradise.  Spurs from the original mainline have become side trails beckoning exploration, where rotting, moss-covered log piers and earthen loading ramps can still be spotted by the discerning eye.  Yet despite the calm that now exists along the Laurel Fork, it doesn't take much imagination to envision the solitude being broken by the scream of rails under the weight of a log train and the shrill whistle of a smoke belching Shay.

Special Thanks

To Riley Cumberland and Ruth Weaver for having the foresight to save important historical artifacts from the trash heap, and to Hank Beck for providing the missing pieces to the puzzle.

Interviews

Albert Carden
Francis Hall
Bob Carden
Will Odom
Riley Cumberland
Stacy Stout
Harry Gasteiger
Nate Street
L.D. Gasteiger (by Ray Johnson)
Ruth Weaver

Reports

Beaumont, C.E. Report on Lands of the Pittsburgh Lumber Company.  USFS, October 1924.
Finance Docket No. 4423 (Abandonment Report Laurel Fork Railway).  ICC, Washington, 1925.
Fletcher, E.D. Report on the Pittsburgh Lumber Company's Tract.  USFS, c. 1914.
Minutes of the ET&WNC Board of Directors and Stockholders Meetings.  ET&WNC, Johnson City, Tenn.: 9/8/09, 9/13/10, 9/13/11, 9/10/13, 9/8/14 and 9/8/15.
Tabbutt, D.W. Preliminary Examination, Pittsburgh Lumber Company.  USFS, February 1924.
Valuation Docket No. 273 (Laurel Fork Railway).  ICC, Washington, 1925.

Books

Ferrell, M.H. Tweetsie Country.  Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Publishing Company, 1976.
Merritt, F. Later History of Carter County.  Kingsport, Tenn.: Arcata Graphics, 1986.
Sulzer, E.G. Ghost Railroads of Tennessee.  Indianapolis: Vane A. Jones Company,1975.
70 Years of General Contracting: A review of major construction, accomplishments of the Booth & Flinn Company.

Newspapers

The Comet (Johnson City, Tenn.)

Periodicals

Manufacturing Record.  Baltimore: Manufacturers Record Publishing Company, December 8, 1910; December 15, 1910.

Articles

Graybeal, Waite.  "The Laurel Fork Railway".  Blue Ridge Stemwinder.  Vol. 8, No. 2, 1995.

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Even though he now Iives in Austin, Tex., Fred Waskiewicz is familiar with Appalachian Mountain logging railroads.  He is a member of the Watauga Valley Chapter and the author of one previous Bulletin article, "Hassinger Lumber Company and Its Railroad Operations" (No.
5, 1987).