Technology & Engineering

Buffalo City got its name when a company from Buffalo, New York, implemented plans for a massive logging operation of 168,000 acres of ancient cypress and juniper trees in a swampy area of the Dare County mainland in eastern North Carolina in 1888. It was an exciting time as 300 Russians, as well as local black and white men, began to cut timber and lay 100 miles of train tracks for locomotives to transport the logs out of the forest. A town was soon built with approximately 50 houses, a hotel, post office, school, general store, and church. While it was not considered a city, it was the largest town in Dare County at the time. When the timber boom was over 20 years later and jobs were scarce, the place was the ideal location for making illegal whiskey, and it soon became known as the moonshine capital of the world. Today, nothing remains of the boomtown. The forest has reclaimed the land.

The story of firefighting in Charlotte is a tale of explosive growth and change that dates back to its humble beginnings in 1887.

The city of Charlotte credits expansion to several events, including the gold rush of the 1830s, the railroad expansion of the 1860s, and the textile boom of the 1880s. During the textile boom, the volunteer firefighters protecting Charlotte and Mecklenburg County could no longer adequately protect the growing city. Thus the Charlotte Fire Department was born. The Roaring Twenties brought in the auto age and along with it motorized fire trucks. Race tensions of the 1960s and the financial boom of the 1990s also figure in the fire department's history. Returning to her roots of growth, Charlotte is now a bustling financial and transportation hub of 650,000 residents protected by more than 1,000 firefighters living in 38 firehouses. Firefighting in Charlotte provides a photographic road map of how fire protection developed from horse-drawn engines of the 1800s to the state-of-the-art apparatus of today. Fire trucks, firehouses, and the firefighters are depicted in images obtained from personal collections, newspapers, archives, and museums.

Discover the story behind the potent partnership between High Point University and the furniture industry.

High Point University was founded in 1924 as a small liberal arts college. The High Point Furniture Market was founded in 1921 and has since grown to be the largest wholesale furniture market in the world. Over the last century industry and university have developed an ongoing, mutually beneficial partnership that has resulted in industry-specific programs being offered to students at the school. Discover the history of this relationship and the impact that real-world exposure has had on both the furniture business and the students. Read the stories of several High Point University graduates who are successfully employed in various positions throughout the industry.

High Point professor and furniture industry veteran Richard Bennington unearths the history of a dynamic partnership.

The story of firefighting in Raleigh and Wake County is almost as old as the county itself. The terrifying threat to wooden structures with minimal water supplies was well known to the planners who laid out Wake County's first town in 1792. Wide streets were created to prevent fires from spreading between buildings. As early as 1802, citizens contributed to the purchase price of Raleigh's first fire engine. More than 200 years later, the dedicated members of 23 fire departments answer the still-familiar cry of fire!

Raleigh and Wake County Firefighting chronicles over a century of fire protection in North Carolina's capital city and surrounding county. Fire engines, fire stations, and the firefighters themselves are depicted in over 220 images culled from local newspapers, area archives, and personal collections. From Raleigh to Cary and Apex to Zebulon, both municipal and rural fire departments are remembered from their early beginnings. Stories of fires at Raleigh's Yarborough Hotel in 1928, downtown Knightdale in 1940, and Pullen Hall at North Carolina State University in 1965 come alive, as do dramatic photographs from the old Mangel's building fire, the North Raleigh tornado, and the flooding after Hurricane Fran.

Soon after the first buildings were completed, a fire department was established in Forsyth County in 1772. The Town of Salem purchased the first fire pump in the state in 1785 after a tavern burned down the year before. Old Salem's Market and Fire House is the oldest enginehouse in North Carolina, built in 1803. Growth in both population and industry led to the joining of Salem and Winston. When the two cities joined in 1913, they formed a united volunteer department. Even with the newly formed Winston-Salem department, there was still a necessity for rural fire protection as some farms, churches, and schools were beyond the reach of the city department. It was not until 1949 that the first rural volunteer department was founded in Sedge Garden. Innovation in fire apparatus and equipment, such as the development of the fog nozzle still in use today, contributed to the success of rural firefighting. The fire service in Forsyth County has consistently been on the forefront of technology, diversity, and revolution.

When Buncombe County was formed in 1792, firefighting efforts were left up to individual landowners and helpful neighbors using buckets and a nearby well or body of water. Not until 1882 was an organized, community-sponsored fire department established; this was the Asheville Fire Department. Other fire departments followed, and no two were the same. Stations appeared in the towns of Weaverville and Black Mountain, while others sprang up in the residential communities of Kenilworth, Biltmore Forest, and George Vanderbilt's Biltmore Village. In September 1953, county commissioners formally passed a resolution for county aid and supervision for rural volunteer fire departments. Through photographs that illustrate firefighting in many of its forms--rescue squads, wildland firefighting units, ladies auxiliaries, and ambulance services--Firefighting in Buncombe County showcases and honors the firefighters of this mountainous area who have always worked to keep their communities safe.