Tuscola on the route

Taking the Train: Tuscola

Haywood County
Altitude: 2,594 feet

Text excerpted from The Western North Carolina Section at a Glance, 1912 (pp. 45-46):

"This charmingly situated place was named for a chief famous in the tribe of the Cherokee Indians. Originally it was established for the accommodation of way passengers on the Southern Railway and as a point for the convenient distribution of mail by rural carriers among the residents of the Northern part of Haywood County. It is also the railroad station for The Southern Assembly."

The Southern Assembly: "In the near future Waynesville is to become a Mecca for the Methodists of the South, for only a short distance North thereof, in a picturesque valley, containing many broad acres, through which flow the clear, cold waters of Richland Creek, is located The Southern Assembly, the great Methodist Chautauqua of the South. On the crest of the hill overlooking the lovely valley is to be erected a modern hotel with ample accommodations and excellent service. A portion of the valley of about 300 acres will be transformed into a beautiful lake. To the right of the hotel site and fronting the lake will be constructed a fine auditorium, with a seating capacity of 5,000 people, and further around the lake will be tennis courts, a golf course, two immense playgrounds and a base ball park. An electrical line will connect the Assembly grounds with Waynesville. The grounds surrounding the lake will be sub-divided and provision already has been made for the construction of many handsome cottages. The project for construction of this Chautauqua of the South involves an expenditure of approximately a million of dollars. Work upon it already has begun and when completed it promises to rival, if not surpass, in beauty of surroundings and appointments, the notable Chautauquas of the North."

Tuscola in the 1890s

To the West: Waynesville directions To the East: Clyde

Tuscola 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

  • Carolina Mountaineer; sponsored by the Haywood county Historical Society. The 1916 Pictorial Story of Haywood County: Reprint of a Special Industrial and Resort Edition of the Carolina Mountaineer. [S.l.: s.n.: 196?].
  • Farlow, Betsy, Dan Lane, and Duane Oliver. Haywood Homes and History. Hazelwood, N.C.: Oliver Scriptorium, 1993 (Waynesville, N.C.: D. Mills, Inc.).
  • Haywood County Heritage Book Committee, ed. Haywood County Heritage, North Carolina, 1994. Waynesville, N.C.: Published by the Haywood County Genealogical Society, in cooperation with Walsworth Publishing Co., 1994.
  • Jarrett, Dana L, ed. A Pictorial History of Haywood County. Asheville, N.C. Asheville Citizen-Times Pub. of North Carolina, 1994.