Marshall McClung
Robbinsville and Tellico Plains were connected in other ways long before the Cherohala Skyway was constructed.
In fact, they were connected by a narrow gravel road that ran through the mountains from Stratton Meadows (also called John Meadows) on the North Carolina/Tennessee state line. Charles Hall mentions a number of these connections in his book A History of Tellico Plains TN.
One shared connection was that both were plagued by outlaw bands during the Civil War. Graham County had the Kirkland Bushwhackers; while they had the Baker Gang. The Baker Gang would raid some community in Tennessee and then slip back into Graham County to hide.
After one particular raid – in which a prominent Tellico Plains person was brutally slain – the citizens of the town decided something had to be done. Twenty-five men rode on horseback into the mountains near North Carolina and hid along the trail they knew to gang would take. They captured the entire Baker Gang, before their leader was made to kneel upon the ground and was executed by a gunshot to the back of the head.
During the logging heyday, both had various logging companies in operation – including the Babcock Lumber Company, which logged the Slickrock Creek area.
On Thanksgiving Day 1918, one of Babcock’s logging train ran away on a steep grade and tore through some shantys occupied by logging families: killing three persons and injuring several others.
This was not to be the only tragedy to strike Babcock, which had families from both states living and working in the Jeffrey’s Hell area. The area was well-known to many because of the number of persons who entered Jeffrey’s Hell and never returned.
It was about to achieve even more notoriety.
In 1925, the area was in a drought. Each month saw rainfall averages far below normal accompanied by hot temperatures. There had been several fires in the woods that summer and the men described the forest as a tinderbox waiting to be lit.
On the first Sunday in September, the tinderbox was lit. A brush fire began burning near the settlement housing the logger’s families. The fire was burning in the areas of Citico Creek and Jeffrey’s Hell, becoming an inferno. Several loggers and their families were trapped.
Two train crews began a rescue effort, going up both the north and south forks of Citico Creek with separate trains.
The trains set even more fires themselves, which trapped one train as the fires outran it.
One train made it into an open area that had already burned with the fire close behind. Two men jumped off the train and tried to escape. They only made it a few yards before dying from the flames.
The fire was so intense that it warped the steel rails and boiled the water in streams, killing the fish.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.