Tweetsie Railroad
Venues
Tweetsie Railroad is a Wild West theme park between Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina, built around Locomotive No. 12, the last surviving engine of the narrow-gauge East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad, which mountain residents nicknamed "Tweetsie" for its shrill whistle. When the line shut down in 1950, the engine passed through the hands of Virginia rail fans and cowboy star Gene Autry before Blowing Rock developer Grover Robbins Jr. bought it back for a dollar and returned it to the Blue Ridge. Tweetsie opened on July 4, 1957, with one mile of track and a single depot, and soon grew into North Carolina's first theme park. The park has long featured bluegrass bands and the Tweetsie Country Clogging Jamboree, giving generations of mountain musicians and dancers a summer stage.
In the newsletter
- No. 7 Spring 1996