The Lopsided Three: A History of Railroading, Logging and Mining in the Holston, Doe and Watauga Valleys of Northeast Tennessee

THE LOPSIDED THREE contains the history of railroading, logging, and mining in three northeast Tennessee valleys: the Holston, the Doe, and the Watauga valleys. Included are four railroads that operated in this area: the Virginia & Southwestern Railway, the Holston Valley Railway, the Laurel Railway, and the Beaver Dam Railroad, and their numer¬ous logging and mining operations. By the late 1920s most of the good timber had been cut – the stump-covered slopes left to erode; many of the mines – which rarely turned a profit – had been closed; and much of the railroad trackage had been abandoned. The Great Depression and the flood of 1940 drove the final nails into the coffin, ending what little logging and mining operations were left, and ending the few surviving railroads.