Whiting on the route

Taking the Train: Whiting

Swain County
Altitude: 1,560 feet

Text excerpted from The Western North Carolina Section at a Glance, 1912 (p. 39):

"Important and rapidly developing lumber plants are located near this village. While the town, at present, is of no considerable consequence in population, it is likely to become, in the very near future, one of the most important and populous places in Swain County. The nearby forests of hardwood timber yet have scarcely been touched, and the cleared lands are remarkably fertile. Just beyond Whiting the Railway crosses the Upper Tennessee River and a few hundred feet beyond the bridge passes under Indian Ridge through a tunnel 621 feet long. This Indian Ridge Tunnel is 80.6 miles from Asheville and 42.5 miles from Murphy. Immediately beyond the tunnel the Railway swings over a fine bridge across the rushing Tuckasegee River, almost at the town of Bushnell, N.C."

Whiting in the 1890s

To the West: Almond directions To the East: Bushnell

Whiting in the 1930s


Return to the Southern Railway Map for the 1910s



Text excerpted from 1912 travel guide, The Western North Carolina Section at a Glance. Issued by the Passenger Traffic Department, Southern Railway, Premier Carrier of the South, Washington, D.C., 1912.

Sources & Readings

  • George, Michael. Southern Railway’s Murphy Branch. Collegedale, Tenn.: The College Press, 1996.
  • Huddleston, Dale, ed. Swain County, N.C., Centennial, 1871 – 1971: Official Souvenir Centennial History. Waynesville, N.C.: The Mountaineer, [1971].
  • Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society. The Heritage of Swain County, North Carolina, 1988. Bryson City, N.C.: Swain County Historical and Genealogical Society, 1988.