HOW DID THE WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA RAILROAD AWAKEN WESTERN REGIONS OF NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH ECONOMICAL DEVELOPMENT, EMPLOYMENT AND TRADE THROUGHOUT THE STATE?
"By 1840, North Carolina had two railroads, which ran north-south, and suddenly the Rip Van Winkle State woke up, and the steam engines started puffing and pulled in all sorts of stuff from factories in the North and sent the Yankees cotton and tobacco in return, exporting our Southernness to faraway places. It was still hard to get from east to west"(Markovich, 2011).
The Western North Carolina Railroad was established in 1855 in an attempt to connect the various struggling counties of Western North Carolina (Weaver, 1998). The railroads which had been built prior to 1845 were all in the eastern portion of the state, so the need of a road toward the mountains was strikingly shown by the failure of the crops in the western counties (Osment, 2008). Owing to this failure, even the necessities of life became scarce in those regions of North Carolina. The price of corn rose from fifty cents, to a dollar and a half a bushel; and yet, at the same time, corn in the eastern counties was rotting in the fields for lack of a market, and fish were being used to enrich the farming soil (Osment, 2008). Additionally, the conditions of the wagon roads were not the most favorable for people wanting to trade and market what little goods they had at the time. Essentially, crop failures are what created a main interest in forming a railroad in Western North Carolina (Weaver, 1998). A failure in crops resulted in an increase in the demand for communication between counties to barter and trade goods and supplies. Constructing a railway would help improve the lives of many residents of North Carolina and this expansion would give Western N.C. the easy access and transportation it's agriculturally dependent county was in need of (Osment, 2008). The formation of the Western North Carolina Railroad and its travel before and after the Antebellum Period in the United States “awakened” the western region of the state through aspects of social movement, economy, employment, and trade.
"By 1840, North Carolina had two railroads, which ran north-south, and suddenly the Rip Van Winkle State woke up, and the steam engines started puffing and pulled in all sorts of stuff from factories in the North and sent the Yankees cotton and tobacco in return, exporting our Southernness to faraway places. It was still hard to get from east to west"(Markovich, 2011).
The Western North Carolina Railroad was established in 1855 in an attempt to connect the various struggling counties of Western North Carolina (Weaver, 1998). The railroads which had been built prior to 1845 were all in the eastern portion of the state, so the need of a road toward the mountains was strikingly shown by the failure of the crops in the western counties (Osment, 2008). Owing to this failure, even the necessities of life became scarce in those regions of North Carolina. The price of corn rose from fifty cents, to a dollar and a half a bushel; and yet, at the same time, corn in the eastern counties was rotting in the fields for lack of a market, and fish were being used to enrich the farming soil (Osment, 2008). Additionally, the conditions of the wagon roads were not the most favorable for people wanting to trade and market what little goods they had at the time. Essentially, crop failures are what created a main interest in forming a railroad in Western North Carolina (Weaver, 1998). A failure in crops resulted in an increase in the demand for communication between counties to barter and trade goods and supplies. Constructing a railway would help improve the lives of many residents of North Carolina and this expansion would give Western N.C. the easy access and transportation it's agriculturally dependent county was in need of (Osment, 2008). The formation of the Western North Carolina Railroad and its travel before and after the Antebellum Period in the United States “awakened” the western region of the state through aspects of social movement, economy, employment, and trade.