November 2009

ET&WNC Boxcar Outside of Roan Mountain

This is the boxcar I photographed 20 years ago, still here. Still in bad shape. But I would have thought it would have rotted to the ground in those years. This is on the western edge of the town of Roan Mountain. It was taped off and had No Trespassing and EPA signs around it and there's a story that goes with it. But suffice to say that the person who lives on tthe property where it sits had had some problems with folks fooling with it. Things escalated and the EPA got involved and it was big mess. And this boxcar is now a sore subject to the land owner.

So, here we were, 3 truckloads of folks milling around taking pictures and gawking. Somehow the owner found out we were there and he came down to "greet" us. And not to invite us in for a beer. We jumped in the vehicles and left before we became statistics.

A week or so later a few locals from our party came over and met on friendly terms with the owner who explained what was going on with it. Everything's cool now. More photos follow.