Abstract:
The King's Mountain Railroad was chartered at Chester Courthouse, now Chester S.C., on December 19, 1848. By 1852, ten miles of track had been constructed, carrying tourists to Yorkville, now York, S.C. After a hiatus brought on by the Civil War, construction began anew in 1872, with ambitious plans to put rail service deep into the wilds of North Carolina, at which point a new corporation, The Chester & Lenoir Narrow Gauge Railroad, was formed. After the C & L went into receivership in 1893, a new operating corporation, known as the Carolina & Northwestern Railway Company, was formed.