The World at Exit 79 7-29-10

Spencer, North Carolina

Having long since learned to compress a day’s drive into a week, there are many grand surprises to be found when one leaves the interstate prematurely. Places once nothing more than notations on highways signs become four-dimensional universes, full of life, memories, history, and time. So it was when I exited at #76, curious about a town that once had a profoundly vibrant and prosperous history; now just one more piece of Americana trying to stay afloat with its memories.

Leaving at Exit 76, one soon comes into the center of Salisbury, a surprisingly handsome town that has decided to feel good about itself and put its best foot forward. Downtown has a robust collection of finely restored and maintained early 20th century buildings, perhaps seasoned with a few 19th century ones as well. Several museums and many street banners give clear evidence of a town that has decided to mine diamonds in its own backyard. Being on a mission, I fought off the urge to stop and pursue the several interesting museums and instead headed east out of town on Main Street.

About three miles out one finds a city limit sign for Spencer; hardly the stuff of spine-tingling travelogues, but indicative I was headed into an interesting era of history. Earlier in the day I had garnered the intelligence that told me I would indeed find a mother lode of Americana on the right, indeed the physical evidence of a world nearly lost to time. A mile down Salisbury St, on the right, one notices a curious collection of ancient locomotives, Pullman cars, water towers, and the massive brick structures associated with the Golden Age of Railroads.

As it turns out Spencer was home to the Spencer Shops that provided maintenance and machine shop services for the extensive Southern Railroad system. Railroads maintained immense ‘Back Shops’ for extensive repairs of rolling stock. At one time the Railroad’s Back Shop provided high paying jobs to as many as 3,500 people working in a town of 2,500, founded by the Southern Railroad. Generations of families worked in these vast shops. The shop floor in the Back Shop alone covered more than 100,000 square feet and fueled prosperity for thousands. The Back Shop was once the largest industrial building in North Carolina. Even the lowest wage earner was making twice what he would have made working in the textile industry. Not only did railroads provide a convenient stress-free way to travel, they also provided economic life blood for many towns across America.

Here in the almost forgotten town of Spencer one can wander around in the largest roundhouse still standing in America. A 100-foot turn table enabled the placement of heavy locomotives in one of thirty seven stalls in this vast round house. There inspections and routine maintenance were performed. Locomotives needing more extensive repairs were taken over to the adjacent Back Shop where a complete rebuild could be accomplished in a mere thirty days. Standing in the center of the yard reminds me a bit of standing in the Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia. There is a vast regal sensibility to these yards that once kept America moving and employed. As one does mental archeology in the round house, clambering on these iron horses of another century, one can’t but wonder why we have allowed something so precious to be lost to the American collective.

Spencer Shops and the town of the same name were victims of technological advances. The development of electric diesel locomotives made steam driven iron horses obsolete. Diesels could travel much further at much lower cost. The maintenance and machine services required for diesel locomotives differ greatly from that of steam engines. Despite a highly skilled stable work force, corporate decisions resulted in the eventual death of the vast yards. The round house, the immense Back Shop, and a dozen other facilities went dark. Public policy decisions eventually caused the demise of most passenger train service in America. Interstate passenger service is only available on a skeleton network operated by a quasi-public entity. The advent of Eisenhower’s 44,000 mile Interstate system and fuel-efficient tractor-trailer rigs nearly did in railroad freight for finished goods.

What Spencer has not lost is a hospitality that stunned me. For a town that has lost so much, one wonders how it has kept the heart to be gracious to curious strangers such as myself who come along to do archeology in the ruins of their memories. Employees working to make a museum of these relics from the Golden Age and other pilgrims of the Steam Age were gracious in a refreshing way. Without fail I was greeted often and with hearty sincerity. I am reminded of the great hospitality I found thousands of miles away in another world, lost in time. One of the greatest sources of beauty I find in my travels is the warmth and hospitality of those who have come to see the treasures they have in their own backyard, be it pyramids buried beneath mounds for fifteen centuries, or in this case a gigantic industrial wonder that used to move the world.

As I wondered for weeks recently at how the Mayans managed to lose track of a few hundred of their cities in a short time, I wonder how we in America are losing track of so many important things ourselves. Is there perhaps something we can learn from places like Yaxchilan and Spencer, before it is too late?

Spencer is mining diamonds in its own backyard, restoring this railroad maintenance yard as an epic indoor-outdoor museum. The Back Shop is nearing the end of a massive restoration and will clearly display just how impressive early 20th century industrial architecture could be. The Power house is under renovation as well. Perhaps we can learn from the citizens of Spencer that our histories are worth remembering and preserving. The greatest treasures are usually found right at home under our feet. There is truly no place like home.