Ok, this is gonna be complicated, so bear with me. Oh, and by the way, that's John Waite in his van in the distance, leaving me behind to shoot some photos.

First the driveway and land on the right belongs to the Buchanon family. This is the end of the first leg of the switchback going down into Minneapolis, NC. We are looking toward Cranberry. See the white fence on the right? That is where the railroad came down the hill from the right. See the road going off to the left in the middle of the photo? That's where the last switch was. The track then went back into Minneapolis to the left of the main road beside a stream that runs beside the white house on the left.

Now, before the Highway Dept. dug out the side of the hill and improved the highway, the track dropped at a fairly steep slope from the right to the left and crossed the stream on a trestle then became a switch and a lead track. After the switch, it continued on the other side of the stream (you can still see the roadbed there today) and followed the stream and the main road down into Minneapolis, behind us. When you see my maps in John's book, you'll understand it better.

The main line, which was the Linville River Ry. in this section, was way up the hill to the right, behind the Buchanon house on a high trestle. After the ET&WNC bought the track, which was part of a logging railroad, they filled in the trestle. It was called the Buchanon Fill, and had a long, slanted, formed concrete culvert underneath it. After the railroad folded in 1940, Mr. Buchanon stopped up the upper end of the culvert and let a lake form behind the fill, with the fill acting as a dam. Sometime in the 50s, during heavy rains, part of the top of the dam washed out and about half the lake came down the hill and washed away a barn and part of the highway. The lake was drained and the culvert opened up, and the water still runs today, just like it did over 60 years ago. Whew, told you it was going to be complicated.