Wilmot on the route

Taking the Train: Wilmot

Jackson County
Altitude: 1,880 feet

Text excerpted from The Western North Carolina Section at a Glance, 1912 (p. 41):

"Located at a point where Bradley Creek, from the south, and Camp Creek, from the North, flow into the Tuckasegee River, Wilmot is peculiarly favored in its lumbering operations, which are considerable. Both the Plott Balsam and the Cowee Mountains in the near vicinity of the village are covered with fine hardwood timber. Portable saw mills are located far up towards the summit of the mountains, and the manufactured lumber is sent down into the valley in a huge flume through which a stream of water has been diverted. At the lower terminus of this flume the timber is disposed among the wood-working plants near the station."

This stretch of the Tuckasegee River, from Wilmot to Barkers Creek, supported timber operations and had access to Southern Railway’s line that “skirted” the river from Dillsboro to Bryson City. A locust pin company located in Dillsboro, which produced wooden fasteners and nails, drew upon the area’s timber resources and, according to Ayres and Ashe’s 1905 report The Southern Appalachian Forests, had “nearly exhausted the supply of locust.” Likewise, regional tanneries had drawn heavily upon this area for tree bark used in the tanning process.

"Barker's Creek, a small station whose inhabitants devote themselves principally to lumbering and truck farming, is practically at the confluence of the Creek of the same name and the Tuckasegee River, 51.9 miles from Asheville and 71.2 miles from Murphy. Just beyond this point, the railroad engineers, in order to avoid the tortuous course of the Tuckasegee, drove a tunnel through a part of Cowee Mountain. It is 858 feet long, and is known as the Cowee Tunnel. Emerging from the tunnel the Railway again crosses the Tuckasegee River within a mile of Dillsboro, N.C."

Wilmot in the 1890s

To the West: Whittier directions To the East: Dillsboro

Wilmot 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

  • Ayres, H.B. (Horace Beemer) and W.W. Ashe. The Southern Appalachian Forests. Washington: Govt. Print. Off., 1905.
  • George, Michael. Southern Railway’s Murphy Branch. Collegedale, Tenn.: The College Press, 1996.
  • Jackson County Genealogical Society. Jackson County Heritage, North Carolina, 1992. Cullowhee, NC: JCGS, 1992 (Volume 1) and 2000 (Volume 2).
  • Williams, Max R., ed. The History of Jackson County. Sesquicentennial ed. Sylva, NC: Jackson County Historical Association, 2001.