JOHNSON CITY – The Clinchfield Railroad – among the many enterprises created by East Tennessee State University founding donor George L. Carter – will be the focus of this month’s Heritage Day at the university’s Carter Railroad Museum.
The event is on Saturday, Nov. 26, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
“Our Clinchfield-focused Heritage Day remains one of our best events of the entire
year,” said Geoff Stunkard, coordinator of the museum’s Heritage Day programs. “There
are still many people who recall the original railroad, riding behind engine No. 1
or seeing freight trains running through Johnson City. The initial CC&O mainline was
the final major new railroad corridor built in America, running between Elkhorn City,
Kentucky, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, to join the Midwest and Southeast.”
Founder of the Clinchfield rail empire, Carter was the developer and landowner who
bequeathed the state both the original plot of land and a substantial financial gift
that resulted in what is now ETSU.
The Carter Railroad Museum is open each Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and includes model railroad layouts, a
special children’s activity room and ongoing programs. Donations are welcome, but
there is no admission fee.
Identify the museum by a flashing railroad-crossing signal at the back entrance to
the Campus Center Building. Visitors should enter ETSU’s campus from State of Franklin
Road onto Jack Vest Drive and continue east toward 176 Ross Drive, adjacent to the
flashing railroad crossing sign.
For more information about Heritage Day, contact Dr. Fred Alsop at (423) 439-6838 or alsopf@etsu.edu. For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Services at (423) 439-8346.