The history of the rails and ties that bind Polk, Henderson and Buncombe counties is a human story of railroad executives, innkeepers, townsfolk and celebrated personalities that passed through or settled.

In this next Live@Lanier program, Thursday, March 16 at 7 p.m., get on board with Terry Ruscin, author/historian/photographer, for a trip through rail history that starts in the eastern U.S. and brings you all the way home to the foothills and mountains.

In a PowerPoint presentation, drawn in part from his latest book, “A History of Transportation in Western North Carolina,” Ruscin will take you on the tracks through Landrum and Tryon, and up the grade from Melrose to Saluda, and beyond to Hendersonville and Asheville. Along the way, you will see depot architecture with contemporary and vintage photographs, elevations, and plans. There will be a few brief side trips into such histories as street rails and logging.

A columnist for the Hendersonville Times-News and retired ad agency owner/creative director, Ruscin has also written “Hidden History of Henderson County” and “Mission Memoirs,” a winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Copies of his latest book will be available for signing and sale. WHKP Radio writes, “makes learning about history a lively and entertaining adventure.” At 272 pages and with many photographs, the book takes you from the early days of Native American mountain traces to ferries and stagecoaches, trains to planes, and the history of Interstate 26.

For stories to educate and entertain, all aboard at Lanier Library, 72 Chestnut Street in Tryon. For more information, call 828-859-9535 or visit lanierlib.org.

– article submitted by Vincent Verrecchio