Evening star., 1940-09-01
Tweetsie's S 65.MiIe
Route Taps Thrilling
Mountain Scenery
Tiny Train Puffs Up
To Highest Point Of
Rolls Eost of the Rockies

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn, Aug. 81.
The traveller has not realized life
at its fullest until he has gone with
Tweetsie on q 65-mile trip through
the mountains of East Tennessee.
Tweetsie is the little train that
runs on a narrow gauge railroad
from johnson City, Tenn, to Boone,
N. C. At times 1t rises to an eleva-
tion of 4,242 feet, the highest railroad
point east of the Rocky Mountains.
This line bears the dignifled name of
the East Tennessee and Western
North Carolina Railroad.
But the most beautiful part of the
scenery traversed by Tweetsie is the
Doe River Gorge, between Hampton
and Roam Mountain Village. 1t Is
here that the rails follow the Doe
River as it tumbles down from the
heights between towering cliffs to
Happy Valley and Sycamore Shoals.
Passengers ride the back platform
and in the baggage car, where the big
doors are swung wide open so they
can see the inspiring scenery. Tweet-
sic also carries open observation cars
for the benefit of tourists.
Engineer Sherman Poppon and
Conductor Cy Crumbey will even
stop the train in picturesque places
so passengers may take pictures and
pluck wild flowers Crumbey also
lectures to tourists and points out
the most scenic spots.
Origin of Name Obscure.
Tweetsie passes Roam Mountain,
famous for its purple rhododendron;
Grandfather Mountain and innum-
cradle craggy peaks as it winds
through wild and beautiful spots in
the heart of the Blue Ridge Noun
tains.
No one seems to know where the
little train with a locomotive about
one-fourth the size of an ordinary
locomotive) got the name of
Tweetsie. Some say 1t was named
by vacationists after they heard the
quaint locomotive whistle echoing
"tweet-tweet" through Doe River
Gorge. Any way, the name Tweet-
sic fits fondly and so it caught the
popular fancy.
Between johnson City and Eliza
bethton, Tenn, the route traverses
Happy Valley" on the Watauga
Rivera region whose surprising
loveliness has been immortalized in
song and story. From the banks of
the historic Watauga undulating
fields Of blue grass and alfalfa, like
a sea of green, roll back to the dis
tant mountain.
East of Elizabethton Tweetsie
leaves the Valley of the Watauga
and follows the Valley of the Doe
past Valley Forge, Tenn, suddenly
enters a new world as different from
the one just left as if they were
separated by thousand miles.
Colors Mirrored.
Below the crystal waters of the
Doe River dash and foam from rock
to rock in silvery cascades. The
colors of the mountain flora-rhodo-
mirrored from the quiet surface of
the intervening pools.
AS Tweetsie enters the Canyon Of
Doe, near Pardee Point, the scene
becomes wilder. The mad waters
of the Doe have eroded their path
through the rock-ribbed mountains,
forming a canyon whose precipitious
walls seem to touch the blue sky.
The pathway. chiseled from the solid
rock, looks down upon the torrent
below.
As the lips of the canyon recede,
Tweetsie enters the Gorge of the
Doe. Through tunnels, over bridges,
skirting the mountain sides, Tweet-
sic continues to climb, past Roam
Mountain, Elk Park and Cranberry
to Montezuma, the highest railway