Railroad Through the "Back of Beyond"

Mead Parce


Railroad Through the "Back of Beyond" Click to Enlarge
Published by Harmon Den Press

Paperback, 128 pages
Illustrated
ISBN: 0-9657461-1-9
$8.95

This is the saga of a railroad which freed people from the isolation of the "Back of Beyond" by use of its 15 mph passenger trains. Called "temporary" when it was constructed in the 1890s, the railroad thrives today as an excursion line for riders interested in a glimpse of the lofty mountains, deep coves, and whitewater of the hinterlands of Western North Carolina. Today’s rider can imagine going through the Cowee Tunnel aboard the Asheville Cannonball, just as it might have been experienced a century ago. Mead Parce’s book fills in all the fascinating details and railroad lore.

 

The Author

Mead Parce


Mead Parce Click to Enlarge
The late Mead Parce was a newspaper editor with a lifelong interest in history and the mountain people of the Southern Appalachians. A graduate of Utica College of Syracuse University, he lived in such diverse places as Texas, Utah, Florida, Central New York, New England, and Hawaii before settling in Hendersonville, North Carolina. There he was the editor of the community’s daily newspaper, the Hendersonville Times-News, for a number of years. In addition to editing the paper, he wrote six columns a week, many involving regional history.
 
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