Regal on the route

Following Wagon Trails - 1890s: Regal

Cherokee County
Altitude: 1,680 feet

The “Nantahala Folio” of the Geologic Atlas of the United States captioned this picture “Surface of Murphy Marble, Stripped for Quarrying; 2 Miles Southwest of Tomotla, Looking Northeast along the Strike. Beyond the quarry is seen a thin layer of auriferous gravel, which has elsewhere been successfully washed for gold. On the right is a ridge of Nottely quartzite; on the left a ridge of Valleytown formation.” The community of Tomotla is 2½ miles northeast of the rail stop at Regal. The reference to auriferous gravel in the caption means that the rock is gold-bearing.

The Cherokee Herald (Murphy, N.C.) newspaper in its June 17, 1874, issue ran an advertisement that asserted, “It has been ascertained that one and half bushels of corn ground at the Tomotla Mills will last a family seven days, whereas the same amount elsewhere only last the same four days.” According to the Heritage of Cherokee County, in the early 1900s, William Benton Sneed ran a gristmill in the Tomotla community. Payment for grinding corn or other grains was by a toll amounting to one-eighth of the output.

To the West: Murphy
directions

To the East: Andrews

Regal in the 1910s  |  Regal in the 1930s

Return to the Southern Railway Map for the 1890s


Sources & Readings

  • Cherokee County Historical Museum. A Pictorial History of Cherokee County. Murphy, N.C.: Cherokee County Historical Museum, 1995.
  • Freel, Margaret Walker. Our Heritage, The People of Cherokee County, North Carolina, 1540 – 1955. Asheville, N.C.: Miller Print. Co., 1956 [c1957].
  • United States, Geological Survey. Geologic Atlas of the United States, “Nantahala Folio, North Carolina – Tennessee.” No. 143. Washington D.C.: U.S. Geological Survey, 1907.
  • White, Alice, D., ed., and White, Nell A., associate ed. The Heritage of Cherokee County, North Carolina. Winston-Salem, N.C.: Cherokee County Historical Museum in cooperation with the History Division of Hunter Pub. Co., 1987.
  • Williams, Michael Ann, essay, inventory, and photography; Dockery, Carl, ed. Marble & Log: The History & Architecture of Cherokee County, North Carolina. Murphy, N.C.: Cherokee County Historical Museum Council, Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1984.