Download or read book If Rails Could Talk Volume 1 Logging the North Carolina Great Smoky Mountains written by Ronald C. Sullivan and published by . This book was released on 2017-02-20 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 1 of "If Rails Could Talk..." is the first of an planned eight volume series about the railroad logging along the Blue Ridge and adjoining North Carolina Smoky Mountains. In volume 1, there are the stories of logging the Big Creek watershed by rail. Located close to the Tennessee state line in northern Haywood County near the present day location of Waterville, NC on I 40, the village of Mt. Sterling and lumber town of Crestmont were the centers of activity for four different lumber companies. Histories of several logging companies are featured; Laurel Fork Lumber, Haddock-France Lumber, the Cataloochee Company, Pigeon River Lumber, Champion Lumber, Champion Fibre, and finally Suncrest Lumber. The book contains over 70 photographs, many published for the first time. Another feature of the book is a set of topographic maps showing the entire railroad grade on Big Creek. Author Ron Sullivan, his wife Marilyn, and hiking partner Jerry Ledford spent many days hiking the old grades, most of them off of established trails and roads. They carefully used a GPS to trace the rail grades and transfer them to USGS topo maps. Printed on 100 lb. gloss paper, spiral bound, edited by Gerald Ledford