Todays arrival of the April 14 edition of The Graham Star newspaper from Robbinsville, NC brings the news that an arsonist burned the Bear Creek depot March 28. Joshua Edward Jumper, 18, of Andrews, NC is charged with the crime and being investigated for others of similar nature. Jumper has numerous charges pending in Cherokee County, NC. He was also on probation in Cherokee County. When questioned by authorities about the fire he said he had burned the building.

The article states that on arrival firefighters found the depot to be in "awful shape". "The fire pretty much gutted it, especially the upstairs," according to volunteer firefighter Keith Eller.

The depot has been owned the last several years by a friend of my wife and myself. It contained some beautiful model trains according to my wife. I have not been inside the building since I moved out in December 1985.

My father in law, Arnold Allen, designed and supervised the construction of the depot for Government Services, Inc, the original operators of the Bear Creek Scenic railroad. It was based on the Southern Railway depot at Scottsboro, Al. Assuming the building will now be destroyed there will be very little of the original Bear Creek Junction complex left only 40 years after it was built.

John Bohon

...is there anyone near the Robbinsville, NC area on this board that can go by and verify this? The reason I ask is that I was in Graham County this past weekend and paid my respects by quickly driving through the Bear Creek Junction area and the depot showed no signs of being damaged by a fire. The Graham Star article apparently doesn't have any pictures with it and I'm wondering if there could possibly be a mis-labeling of buildings here.

Anyone up for a side trip for verification? All I saw was the front (would have been trackside) of the depot from the main entrance drive and didn't drive around the back to where the old BCJ parking lot was but it sure didn't look like a building gutted by fire from my vantage point.

thoroughly confused on this matter...
Kevin

My wife got an email through to the current owner of the Bear Creek depot and he had no idea what she was talking about. Fearing he had not been notified of a fire he called the paper and they were even more clueless about what had burned than he was. He then called the sherriffs department and was told it was not the Bear Creek depot that had burned but the old Topton Greyhound bus depot. In the railroad world this building is better known as the old Southern Railway Topton depot. It was relocated about two miles from the Southern to an overlook of the Nantahala Gorge. It has been a private residence for many years.

I am sorry to have caused the confusion. Rarely have I been this glad to be wrong. It is sad another railroad structure has been lost.

Thanks to Kevin and several others for helping to set things straight.

John Bohon