Shulls Mills: When The Timber Fell

It's hard to recognize today, but Shull's Mills was once the most industrious area of Watauga County. Like Todd on the western end, Shulls Mills was a railroad stop with a thriving community around it.

Shulls Mills was the toll road between the Valle Crucis area and Blowing Rock around the turn of the century, with a general store, post office, hotel, and church, with many travelers passing through. But the settlement really came to life when William Scott Whiting located a bandmill site on the Watauga River nearby. Whiting Lumber Company began buying timberland around the region, with operations beginning in 1917. A railway was built to Shulls Mills and eventually on into Boone. A small spur railway ran along Boone's Fork to help with the hauling of timber to the band mill. Still, trees were cut and loaded by hand and much of the hauling was done by draft animals.

The population of Shulls Mills expanded from around a hundred and fifty to more than a thousand, as men moved their families near the mill where they worked. Four dams were built to help collect and route the logs that were to be cut and also to generate electricity to operate the large saws. A railroad bridge spanned the river, and other businesses quickly sprouted to served the workers.

The first railway depot consisted of two boxcars. A grain and feed store, barber shop, hospital and doctor's offices, and a movie theater were built. A couple of churches helped meet the spiritual needs of the sawyers. But fortunes rose and fell quickly as thousands of acres of timber were rapidly cleared, and the bandmill soon cut itself out of business.

Around 1925, Whiting moved his operations to several other mountain locations. Many of the people who had worked in the Shulls Mills plant took jobs elsewhere, leaving the area unable to support all the new businesses. A flood in 1940 wiped out the railroad beds, and there wasn't enough business or interest to justify rebuilding. Today, the remnants of a dam below Highway 105 is one of the most visible reminders of the days when railroads ruled and the timber industry cuts its path across the mountains.