At 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, area residents gathered at the clock tower on Trade Street in Tryon to watch the ball drop from the tower and welcome a new year. Organizers of the event claimed Tryon’s 10 p.m. ball drop was the first in the nation, beating the famed Times Square event by a full two hours and setting a “celebratory tone” for the rest of the nation to follow.