Abandoned/Closed - 6/29/2022

Starting off today with two photos from Franklinville, NC, a small village on the Deep River.

Franklinville, established in 1847, was named in honor of Jesse Franklin (1760-1852), a governor of NC.

It, like many towns along the Deep River, was built primarily around the existence of mills and factories, which in turn used the river as a power source and water supply.

The Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railway built a branch, called the "Factory Branch" originally, in 1889, that split off their main line at Climax, NC and went to Ramseur, NC, south of Franklinville. Eventually the CF&YV became the Atlantic & Yadkin, the main line became known as the "CF Line", and the branch became known as the "Ramseur Branch". It kept this name when the A&Y was folded into the Southern, but the branch was totally removed sometime in the late 70's or early 80's.

Some of the right-of-way is now the Deep River Rail Trail.

Obviously, the mills and factories in the area wound down due to overseas competition, which in turn cut into the railroad's profits, as a lot of the A&Y's tonnage came from factories and mills on the Deep River, the towns suffered, and the branch was removed when there was nothing to haul (a common story in many towns, unfortunately).

The town itself is a nice very small rural town, with the added attraction of various abandoned mills and factories.

I plan to go back, probably this fall or winter, to do more exploring.

Anyway, here is a shot of one of the ruined mills.