Pinnacle, NC

History

Even after my second trip to the region, I do not know much about Pinnacle. It is a small community in southwest Stokes County. It was incorporated in 1901, but it’s charter was repealed in 1903. Originally, it was known as Culler, for Emmanuel W. Culler who owned part of the land on which the railroad station was built (around 1888). The present name was adopted in 1894. It is at an altitude of 1,085 feet.

The 1916 ICC valuation survey recorded Pinnacle’s depot as a Type 3 combination station, built to the same standard Southern Railway plan as the one at Dalton. It was finished in board-and-batten with a metal-shingle roof; the passenger end was ceiled and floored in tongue-and-groove, while the freight room had plank floors and walls boarded up three and a half feet high. A coal bin sat under the platform, and two small oil houses stood nearby. The structure that set Pinnacle apart was a whitewashed stock chute — some 785 board feet of lumber — a reminder that the stop handled livestock along with flour and freight. E. L. Smoak shipped mules and horses from Pinnacle, and the chute is where they would have been loaded.

Track Diagram

This image is from the ICC valuation blueprint. According to an A&Y ETT, Pinnacle had a capacity for 34 cars in the sidings and spurs. Train 61 stopped every day except Sunday at 11:50 AM or thereabouts as it headed north and west to Mount Airy. Train 60 dropped in about 9:55 AM on the way to Greensboro daily except Sundays.

Industries

A Southern Railway Shippers Guide from 1916 indicates the following industries were located in Pinnacle and used the A&Y for delivering and receiving products by rail (although some may have used the station or team track rather than having a dedicated siding). I will add other industries as I receive information about them:

Odds and Ends

Here’s a shot of track that is close to Pinnacle, but is actually in King, looking south.

I would really appreciate any information on this town from anybody knowledgeable!