Whitetop

Title

Whitetop

Subject

White Top Mountain
Damascus, Virginia
History
Industry and Commerce
Lumber
Railroads
Virginia-Carolina Railroad
Beaverdam Railway
Damascus Lumber Company
Hassinger Lumber Co.
Smethport Extract Company
Douglas Land Co.
T.W. Thayer Co.
Gen. John D. Imboden
Albert Mock
Ben Broady
Luther Hassinger
Douglas Robinson
Corrine Robinson
Elliott Roosevelt

Description

"The town of Whitetop, nestled at the foot of White Top Mountain, was incorporated in 1913, the year the railroad arrived. Before the train, the main industry was farming: families eked out a living raising cattle, hogs, sheep, corn and other crops. There were so many trees in the area, farmers from North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia set their hogs loose in the un-fenced grazing boundaries around White Top and Mt. Rogers to feed on the chestnuts and acorns that covered the ground." Doug McQuinn, p. 31

"William P. Douglas Robinson, Theodore Douglas Robinson and Monroe Douglas Robinson constituted the Douglas Land Co. which was organized in New York in 1904.
"The charter members were near kinsmen, William P. Douglas being the first cousin of Douglas Robinson's mother and the two younger members being the sons of Douglas Robinson. However, Douglas Robinson was the moving spirit of the enterprise, giving to it lavishly of his time and means before it was fairly launched as a business undertaking and after the company became actively engaged in timber development.
"Elliott Roosevelt, the brother of Mrs. Robinson and father of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt..., was closely identified with the early development of the White Top property." Miriam Sheffey, p.382-83

"With a railroad operating in Damascus in 1901, the way was open for taking timber from the mountains and the lumber boom started." L.F. Hall, p.18

""These years [1880-1920] are characterized by the beginning of massive disturbance to the local area and the mountain(s). Logging and sawmill operations began in earnest throughout the area." Doug Ogle, p.159

Creator

Photo credit: J.J. Prats

Source

Doug McGuinn, The Virginia Creeper: Remembering the Virginia Carolina Railway, Bamboo Books (1998)

Goodridge Wilson, Smyth County History and Traditions, Kingsport Press (1932); Chapt. XXI, "Laurel Farm," by Miriam Sheffey

L.F. Hall, A History of Damascus, 1793-1950 (1950)

Douglas W. Ogle, Whitetop the Great Meadow Mountain of Southwest Virginia (2011)

Publisher

(see Sources, above)

Date

1901-1940

Contributor

James J. Worrall, Plant Pathologist
USDA Forest Service

Rights

Virginia Creeper at Whitetop Marker, UE10
Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources

Old growth chestnut, Great Smokey Mts., N.C. [Circa 1909/10] Forest History Society, Durham, N.C.