Old Fort – The luncheon meeting of the Leadership Asheville Forum focused attention on a dark time in local history. Dr. Dan Pierce, professor of history at UNC-A, spoke on the engineering marvel and human tragedy that surrounded the construction of the Swannanoa Railroad Tunnel. On March 11, 1879, railroad work crews finally broke through Swannanoa Mountain, opening a tunnel that connected Asheville to Salisbury and the rest of eastern North Carolina. It was a tremendous feat of engineering, but it came at a terrible cost in human lives—nearly all of them incarcerated African-Americans.
Nancy Waldrop, President of Leadership Asheville Forum, started the luncheon meeting with a few business matters, such as voting on the upcoming LAF officers and board members past and present. The Circle of Excellence Award was then presented to Dr. Elizabeth Colton for her many accomplishments and contributions to the community.
Dr. Colton grew up in Asheville and has excelled in journalism, diplomacy, and education. As a journalist, she was a producer for NBC News in London, a diplomatic correspondent for NPR, and an Emmy Award-winning reporter for ABC News. Later, in the U.S. Foreign Service, she was stationed or served in over one hundred foreign countries, primarily in the Middle East. She was nominated by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for the State Department’s prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Public Diplomacy. Now, back in her home town of Asheville, she is a diplomat and journalist in residence at Warren Wilson College, where she teaches a class and recently offered the commencement address to graduating students. The Circle of Excellence Award is given yearly by the Leadership Asheville Forum for having contributed to new or existing programs that have had, or are having, a demonstrable impact on our community. A few earlier recipients are David Feingold, DeWayne Barton, John Ellis, and Oralene Simmons.
Dr. Pierce then spoke of the construction of the then-called Swannanoa Mountain Gap Tunnel and his role in the RAIL Memorial Project. There is a NC marker located at Old US 70 at Ridgecrest, noting that this “tunnel is the longest (1,800 ft) of 7 on the railroad between Old Fort and Asheville.” After fraud was discovered in the WNC RR, the state of North Carolina took on the task of building the mountain pass. The state wanted to build this tunnel to open up this area economically. Railroad transportation would bring the outside world to the mountains. Governor Zebulon Vance received a telegram from James H. Wilson, chief engineer of the Western North Carolina Railroad, that “daylight entered Buncombe County this morning through the Swannanoa Tunnel.” The first train finally steamed through the tunnel into Asheville on October 3, 1880.
The construction of this railway tunnel was an arduous task and was completed by approximately 3,000 incarcerated laborers. Apparently, the state had too few incarcerated men to call upon. They needed to round up more laborers for the project and announced it in the newspaper, as seen in the Asheville Weekly Citizen, May 9, 1878. Thus, more men were rounded up for as small an offense as vagrancy or the stealing of a pig or chicken. The work was incredibly dangerous, and the conditions were brutal, with the men working from dawn to dusk for as little as 6 cents a day. The living conditions at the Round Knob Stockade, near Andrews Geyser, were just appalling, with many dying from their labor in the tunnel, rampant illnesses, or getting badly maimed on the job.
Very little seems to have been written about this sad time in history. Wilma Dykeman has a chapter on it in “The French Broad,” and John Ehle, too, in his book “The Road.” There were songs that evolved, such as Swannanoa Tunnel, attributed to Bascom Lamar Lunsford and others. A hammerman in the tunnel needed to hit a spike placed in the mountain, twist it, and pack the spot with dynamite to blast away parts of the mountain. Due to the use of explosives, many cave-ins occurred during construction, killing at least 300 people. A hooting sound meant someone had just died in the tunnel.
The RAIL Memorial Project
Dr. Pierce and Mayor Steve Little (Mayor of the City of Marion) discussed a way to honor those who lost their lives so tragically in the building of this tunnel. The two men launched the RAIL Memorial Project. A monument with plaques was erected at Andrews Geyser in Old Fort. It describes how the tunnel was built and lists many of the names of those who lost their lives. Sadly, records were poorly kept. On Sunday, October 17, 2021, a dedication and unveiling of this memorial for those who built the Mountain Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad at Andrews Geyser took place. Since then, there have been searches for probable gravesites. Many graves have been located through the use of canine detection and geophysical surveying tools such as GPR. Boulders marking graves were found by the dogs, but many got moved over the years by neighbors. There is a high probability that a mass graveyard was located in the area.
This memorial was created to share the true story behind this extraordinary human endeavor and to honor the memory of those who suffered brutally and died there. The RAIL Memorial project continues, and the Steering Committee welcomes anyone wishing to learn more. Dr. Pierce sees the RAIL Memorial Project as an opportunity to recognize the lives sacrificed in the name of progress. Go to www.therailproject.org for more information.