Tennessee Lumber and Manufacturing Co. - circa 1900's Unissued Lumber Stock Certificate

Unissued Stock. Knoxville, Tennessee. The Beaver Dam Railroad was a short-line railway that functioned in Virginia and Tennessee during the early 20th century, linking the towns of Damascus, Virginia, and Crandull, Tennessee. The railway began to be phased out in 1918, with certain segments still in use into the 1920s. Currently, a significant portion of the old route is traced by Tennessee State Route 133.

In the late 19th century, the Empire Lumber and Mining Company began logging operations in northeastern Tennessee. To transport lumber from its sawmill in Crandull, Tennessee, the Beaver Dam Railroad was incorporated on August 6, 1900. It built a line from Crandull to the Tennessee-Virginia state border, covering a distance of 8.52 miles (13.71 km), where it connected with the Virginia-Carolina Railway. Initially, the section from the state border to Damascus, Virginia, was operated by the Virginia-Carolina Railway. Around 1900, the Tennessee Lumber and Manufacturing Company also began operations near Sutherland, Tennessee, and used the Beaver Dam Railroad for transporting its products. By 1902, the line from Crandull to Damascus, covering about 10 miles, was completed. The Crandull and Shady Valley Railroad, a six-mile extension, was incorporated on December 15, 1909, to extend the line from Crandull to Shady Valley, Tennessee.

This extension was leased by the Beaver Dam Railroad and functioned as a singular entity. In 1910, a 1.386-mile (2.231 km) segment in Virginia, which had been under the operation of the Virginia-Carolina Railway, was leased to the Beaver Dam Railroad for an annual payment of $300. By the early 1910s, as timber resources became scarce, the companies that initially relied on the Beaver Dam Railroad began to withdraw, resulting in the abandonment of the Tennessee section in 1918. Only the brief Virginia segment persisted, continuing operations under the Beaver Dam name into the 1920s to support the Smethport Extract Company located near Damascus. During this period, the railroad managed a mere 1.386 miles (2.231 km) of single-track mainline and 0.129 miles (208 m) of yard or siding track. Nevertheless, it did not possess any of the tracks or property, aside from a steam locomotive and a passenger car.

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