Stone memorial to acknowledge human cost of WNC railroad
RAIL Project will dedicate marker near the Swannanoa Tunnel
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
October 17, 2023
An Oct. 22 unveiling ceremony in the Ridgecrest community of Black Mountain will recognize the human cost of bringing the railroad up the Swannanoa Gap. Photo by Fred McCormick
A large boulder memorializing the incarcerated laborers who perished during the construction of the Mountain Division of the Western N.C. Railroad will be unveiled at 3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 22, in Black Mountain.
The marker, which is the second erected by the Railroad and Incarcerated Laborer (RAIL) Memorial Project, will be placed on Old U.S. 70 in Ridgecrest, near the western portal of the Swannanoa Tunnel, and commemorate an untold number of the workers who are likely buried nearby.
The RAIL Project was established in 2020 by UNC Asheville history professor Dan Pierce and Marion Mayor Steve Little to raise awareness of the mostly African American prisoners forced to build a modern engineering marvel from Old Fort to Ridgecrest in the years following the Civil War. Approximately 98% of the thousands of laborers who blasted seven tunnels in the rugged mountain terrain while ascending 1,100 up the Swannanoa Gap were Black.
An unknown numberer of workers, many of whom had been convicted of misdemeanor crimes and sentenced to chain gangs, died during the construction of the railroad, which ultimately connected WNC to the east side of state. Estimates suggest between 125 to 300 prisoners are buried in unmarked locations along the route.
The RAIL Project, in 2021, partnered with Western Carolina University research scientist Blair Tomey, who utilized ground penetrating radar and cadaver dogs to locate what is believed to be a mass grave in Ridgecrest. The location, which is on private property and will remain undisturbed, is within close proximity to the 1,872-foot long Swannanoa Tunnel, which was the site of multiple cave-ins and deaths during its construction in 1879.
“It’s important for us all to begin to understand the scale of human exploitation that occurred to connect WNC to the rest of the state by rail,” said Anne Chesky Smith, a member of the RAIL Project Steering Committee and director of the Asheville Museum of History.
The nonprofit organization dedicated its first railroad memorial at Andrews Geyser in Old Fort, near the first stockades used to supply labor for the grueling work. At least 30 prisoners died within the first year, according to records researched by RAIL. Dedicated in October of 2021, the stone marker lists the names of around 150 incarcerated laborers identified in census records.
The Ridgecrest dedication ceremony, which will be held at 381 Yates Drive, is open to the public, and attendees are invited to bring camping chairs. The two-ton boulder, which will include a bronze plaque, symbolizes the work and sacrifices of the laborers who lost their lives under the brutal conditions.
“For a significant portion, this turned into a death sentence,” said RAIL Porject Chair Pierce.