Railroads have played a major role throughout the history of the Appalachian Mountains. The George L. Carter Railroad museum is dedicated to the history of railroading, and on Saturday they held their monthly Heritage Day.
Geoff Stunkard, Heritage Day coordinator for the Carter Museum, said that with each heritage event is based on a specific historical era or a specific geographic region in the U.S. The theme for this heritage day was Appalachia Railroads.
“We call it ‘Hootenanny in the Hollers,'” Stunkard said. “We are covering the rail service that was in the region of Southwest Virginia, Kentucky, and the area where the coal fields were, which were all north of Clinch Mountain.”
Stunkard said that they decided to focus on coal and timber because it was a major resource for the part of the Appalachia they are displaying that went on to benefit other areas.
“In the end, at the time that those operations were strong, it was a huge building block for the way America functioned,” Stunkard said.
Stunkard said that Mountain Empire Model Railroaders Club and the Railroad Museum does not do a lot of prep work for Heritage Days. They usually promote the idea of what they are going to do, and then find trains that denote that and operate them on the Heritage Day. Stunkard said the equipment they have is Appalachian-oriented, so it’s easy to do an Appalachian Heritage Day.
“Our equipment is set up for an Appalachian flavor,” Stunkard said.
Stunkard said that it is important to focus the history of railroads in this area because of the ties the industry has to the region.
“I think when you think about Johnson City being a very early railroad area in Tennessee … There’s a huge amount of history associated with this region,” Stunkard said.
Stunkard went on to point out that ETSU has ties to railroad history as well.
“The founder of the Clinchfield Railroad, George L. Carter, was the one who donated the property the university stands on today,” Stunkard said. “So we have an affinity toward Mr. Carter and what he did for the university as well as for regional business and the railroading in general for this area.”
Stunkard said that he enjoys sharing the history of railroading because of the crowds that come into the museum and appreciate the effort behind the displays and the idea behind railroading.
“There’s a certain romance to railroading in general,” Stunkard said. “There’s a certain sense of history. There’s a certain sense of this idea that these were the things that moved equipment. These were the things that moved people around prior to personal automobiles and airplanes.”
The George L. Carter Train Museum is located in the Campus Center Building and is open every Saturday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Heritage Days are held the last Saturday of every month. The next Heritage Day will be Oct. 26, and will focus on southern railroading.
