Erwin grew up around the railroad. The Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio line reached completion in 1909 with its headquarters here, and the Clinchfield's yard and shops shaped the town until CSX closed its Erwin operations in 2015. The Unicoi County Heritage Museum fills "Quarters #1," a turn-of-the-century house built for the superintendent of the National Fish Hatchery. It opened with nine rooms on July 3, 1982, and now includes a Clinchfield Railroad room, a Blue Ridge Pottery room, a country store and a schoolhouse. A railroad museum modeled on a depot stands beside it.
On September 13, 1916, the Sparks World Famous Shows elephant Mary was hanged from a railroad derrick in the Clinchfield yard, the day after she killed a handler, Walter "Red" Eldridge, in Kingsport. About 2,500 people watched. Accounts of how Eldridge died differ, early newspaper stories were sensational, and the famous photograph was heavily retouched. Mary was buried by the tracks in an unmarked grave. Erwin has since raised money for an elephant sanctuary.
The yard saw a second act of mob violence. In May 1918 Tom DeVert, a Black railroad laborer, was shot and killed after a confrontation near the yard. A mob burned his body on a pile of railroad ties, summoned the town's Black residents to the yard, and forced them to leave. The Clinchfield's general manager stopped the mob from burning their part of town. Accounts of the number driven out run from about 60 to 131, and the sources disagree on what led to the shooting. Erwin was long reported to be a sundown town.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour