The Tweetsie Railroad. All of the information about the East Tennesse and Western North Carolina Railroad (nicknamed the “Tweetsie”) given in Chapter 16 is accurate. The narrow- gauge railroad was chartered in 1866 by the TN General Assembly to connect Johnson City, TN with Cranberry, NC, where the Cranberry Furnace forged pig iron; this was accomplished in 1882. In 1919, a section of the railway (known as the “Linville River Railroad”) extended passenger service to Boone, NC, which was a major factor in making this area of the Appalachian Mountains more accessible. As Sally Jane noted, Tweetsie engineers and crew were well known for giving free rides and doing shopping for needy folks during the Great Depression. Unfortunately, a changing economy on top of a devastating flood in 1940 led to the Tweetsie’s demise in 1950; but “The Railway with a Heart” lives on in treasured tickets long ago validated by a heart-shaped punch, the stories her grateful High Country fans tell of her, and the Tweetsie Railroad theme park just outside of Blowing Rock, NC.
