When the Carnation Dairy receiving station opened in Spruce Pine on September 4, 1941, the Asheville Citizen reported that a large crowd was in attendance to hear speeches by state and corporate officials. An open house was held prior to the speechmaking, and “iced...
In 2005 the Fraser fir (Abies fraseri) was adopted as the official state Christmas tree of North Carolina. The idea came from eighth-graders in Mr. Chris Hollifield’s North Carolina History Class at Spruce Pine’s Harris Middle School who petitioned legislators...
This article features recollections of Gary Forbes of Mocksville, NC, the son of Paul and Elsie Burleson Forbes. He was born in 1948 in Spruce Pine at Williams Clinic. My earliest memories are of living in the Hamme Tungsten Queen Mine Camp in Vance County, NC,...
On June 17, 1955, the Museum of NC Minerals was officially opened at Gillespie Gap with North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges presenting the museum to United States National Park Service Director Conrad L. Wirth. The museum was a joint project between the state of...
The building in the photograph was on the corner of Greenwood Road and Highland Avenue, just across from Town Hall, according to Max L. Gouge (1926-2015), who made notes and drew a map on the reverse of the photo. His notes state that the original Esso Station in...
J.E. Burleson operated this mica house atop Burleson Hill, the location of the current Spruce Pine Town Cemetery. Burleson began opening mica mines in 1894 and ground mica beginning in the 1900s. He was the largest individual mica operator in the region. His...
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