(rshsdepot) Boone, NC

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From The Charlotte Observer.
 
Original story and photo at:
_http://www.charlotte.com/news/story/539923.html_ 
(http://www.charlotte.com/news/story/539923.html) 
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Fire destroys gift shop, museum at Tweetsie Railroad
Blaze lasted over  three hours

Victoria Cherrie
_vcherrie_@_charlotteobserver.com_ (mailto:vcherrie@charlotteobserver.com) 

Investigators spent today shoveling through ashes to determine what  caused 
an early morning fire that destroyed the Tweetsie Railroad Museum and  gift 
shop at the tourist attraction about two hours northwest of  Charlotte.
 
It could have been a lightning strike or some type of electrical problem,  
said Cathy Robbins, whose family operates the 50-year-old park off U.S. 321  
between Boone and Blowing Rock. Firefighters responded about 4 a.m. 
 
The one-story wood building – believed to be an original train depot – was  
consumed with flames fanned by high winds, said Blowing Rock firefighter Mark  
Winston Lawrence.
 
“There was nothing we could do to save it,” he said. Firefighters from  
Boone and Blowing Rock spent more than three hours extinguishing the fire that  
also caused minimal heat damage to a second building about 10 feet away that  
houses restrooms.
 
The museum was one of many attractions at the old fashioned park that  
celebrates the Tweetsie Railroad, which used to run between Boone and Johnson  City, 
Tenn. The 1,300 square-foot building, which also housed a first-aid center  
and concession stand, was moved from Boone to the park in 1954, Lawrence  said.
 
Flames roared through the museum, burning history with it. Today there was  
nothing left of train timetables, old railroad lanterns and the initialized  
boots and leather saddle once owned by the late Fred Kirby – a gun-toting,  
singing cowboy who was a Charlotte television personality and hosted a kids show  
in the 1960s.
 
“You can’t put a price on the memorabilia,” Robbins said. “It’s just very  
sad.”
 
The park is still scheduled to open on May 2 as planned, she  said.



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