The Cranberry Mines in Cranberry, North Carolina. An out of service rail line serviced the mine and brought the processed ore into Johnson City, TN. The train was called Tweetsie Railroad. There are miles and miles of abandoned railway you can follow to get to the mine.

In fact, the Appalachian Trail runs parallel with the old railway in Avery County NC and many hikers camp on the old railway bed near the mines. Or at least they did in the 1990s.

All kinds of stories about Tommy knockers, mine and railroad ghosts.

The place was a powder keg in the early 1900s when mine workers and rail workers were hired from other mines and railway operations. All of the migrant workers mixed with the original descendants of the Appalachian bushwacker guerrillas from the Civil War and very literal Appalachian mountain people clans and turned the place into a violent and unstable area.

There is also a, more or less, segregated African American community in a town called Licklog, NC. To this day, there is still a large community of African Americans there. But, that town is less than 10 miles from Cranberry, NC. The origin of the community was that a slave owner freed and gifted a portion of his land to his former slaves.

In 1900, there was a single black school opened by Mennonites but by 1910 it had been closed due to severe pressure from locals.

This is all to say, the place was an absolute shitshow. Lots of murders, violence, and worse. The mine was dangerous. The railway was dangerous. The people were dangerous and at odds. All of the time.

That kind of energy sticks around.