May 3 Bernard Mountain Hike

 

Just outside Old Fort is this newly built trail. It is the work of the McDowell County Trail Association. Steve Pierce, head of that organization is leading the hike. Everyone hiking with us was attending the MST Annual Gathering in Black Mountain. So, we had many trail builders and maintainers in our ranks. The trail opened last year and is a great example of a machine built trail. Old Fort has become a mountain bicycling mecca, so this trail was designed to be both a hiking and biking trail. The surface was incredibly smooth with few roots and rocks. There were a few small jumps for the bikes as well. All corners were banked to accommodate bikes.

Mountain Laurel was everywhere along this trail. It was just beginning to bloom.

Pink Lady Slippers also made an appearance. 

A railroad was built through this area in the 1870s. It was an attempt to connect to Asheville which would be the hub of western NC railroads. This particular 3.5 mile section needed a 7 mile long railroad to traverse it. Swannanoa Gap and Royal Gorge provided the best place to cross the Blue Ridge. However, the railroad would still need 7 tunnels to make the connection. The tunnels were dug buy hand and explosives by convict labor provided (leased) by the state of NC. The 13th amendment abolished slavery except for convicted criminals. Many states passed what are called "Black Codes" which were laws that targeted blacks. These laws involving vagrancy and petty theft were used to arrest and convict blacks followed by a lengthy prison sentence. The state then used these convicts to build railroads. It  is estimated that the 3582 miles of railroads built between 1876 and 1894 were built by black convicts. 

We could see one of the railroad tunnels from from the trail, well below us. The Rail Project organization has been researching the convict labor used to build the railroad. They have been using records from the prisons to see who may have worked here. Perhaps as many as 300 convicts may have died while building the railroad according to their research. Some were shot trying to escape, some died from disease but the majority died during tunnel collapses. Mass graves are thought to be near the tunnel entrances. They are using cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar to search for graves. The plague below was placed near a mass grave they found near Ridgemont.