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Then and now
Cannon Brothers Gas and Oil Co. (top photo), pictured here in the late 1960s, operated in Dillsboro until the mid-1980s, when Jim Cannon sold the business to Morgan Oil. Cannon Brothers began in 1913 as a general store in Dillsboro and grew to become the Shell Oil distributors for Western North Carolina. The building is currenlty the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad’s Dillsboro depot, and excursion trains arrive and depart frequently in the spring, summer and fall. The initial tourist train, Great Smoky Mountains Railway, was formed in 1988 and purchased the building from Morgan Oil a year later. Rolling stock for the GSMR was purchased from various railroads around the nation, and more than 200,000 passengers enjoy the scenery each year. American Heritage Railways purchased the GSMR in December of 1999. The Great Smoky Mountains Railway operates today as the newly organized Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. – Herald file photo (top) and Herald photo by Nick Breedlove |
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