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TFAC Executive Director Marianne Carruth discusses proposed Saluda Grade Trail

By Carolyn Baughman 

Tryon native Marianne Carruth can trace her family roots back five generations along the proposed Saluda Grade Trail. Now, as the Executive Director of the Tryon Fine Arts Center, she sees the trail as an avenue to support the arts and keep local stories alive. Her regional family story begins with one couple’s journies along the historic railroad.

In the early 1900s,  Marianne’s grandfather, Dr. Marion Cherigny Palmer, traveled by rail to Tryon, where he would begin work as a physician. He would later marry Bertha Lee Bailey of Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina, who also had a family summer home in Saluda. 

The young couple built a house on Laurel Avenue. Dr. Palmer was a general physician who would later help start St. Luke’s Hospital. 

Marianne’s mother, Mary, was later born and raised in Tryon. After WWII, Mary worked for the Red Cross in occupied Japan, where she met her husband Benjamin, who served in the Army. The couple moved to New York, where Ben worked as a linesman. Before long, Dr. Palmer encouraged Ben and Mary to move to Tryon to run the Thermal Belt Telephone Company, which Dr. Palmer owned. Ben would become President of the company, overseeing the connection of telephone lines from Saluda to Mill Spring. Marianne had four brothers and sisters, some of whom were born and raised in their home on Hogback Road. 

As a child, Marianne remembers the train as a constant presence. “We’d hear the breaks coming near Horseshoe Curve. Often, we’d stop and listen, count the cars, and sing Little Red Caboose,” she recalls. “I used to like to watch the signals change. Most of them were freight trains, but on one special occasion, we took a passenger train to Landrum. 

“On summer days, Mom would send us down to Horseshoe Curve Road, and we’d walk to the Country Club and swim all day. We had a path that went down across the tracks. Sometimes, we’d tube out on the Green River. Other times, we’d play putt-putt out in the valley or go to the drive-in movie theater.” 

She fondly recalls “swinging on the swings” behind Carruth Furniture next to the train tracks as a child. Thinking back on the significance of the Saluda Grade Railway throughout her childhood, “It was the connection,” says Marianne.  

She would later go to college in Texas and then to New York City to pursue acting as a profession. Years later, Marianne would return to Tryon for a friend’s wedding. There she met her husband, Mike Carruth, who is also a native of the area. 

The two would marry seven months later, in 1994. They bought land along the Pacolet River Valley off Hwy 176. This was the same area where Mike’s ancestors settled in the 19th century. Their property along the Pacolet River extends up to the Saluda Grade Railway. Over the years, she and her family would walk through the wooded acres that lead up to the tracks. 

“I remember the last time we heard the steam engine scream along the tracks with my kids,” she recalls. 

Her husband began the Adventure School on their property in Tryon, and took numerous groups on hikes through the area’s natural beauty, often up to the railway tracks. “It has gorgeous creeks, rivers, and natural beauty. It’s been a great place for the Adventure School to grow,” shared Marianne. 

Now, their daughter Mattie is carrying on the legacy of The Adventure School and continues hikes and adventures in the same woods near her home.

Throughout her life, Marianne has always had a love of performing arts. When her children were young, she led co-op classes for area homeschoolers at the Tryon Fine Arts Center. That led to her coordination of the Arts in Education program, among other programs for TFAC. “It’s a great space for self-expression,” shares Marianne, “I believe in letting your heart lead you and adapting to what’s there to express yourself.” 

Marianne has spent 15 years working for the Tryon Fine Arts Center, and the last ten serving as Executive Director. TFAC is a hub for world-class art, music, and theater performances. It also happens to be just a stone’s throw from the railway that’s been a constant in her family’s life. 

The nearby Saluda Grade railroad is now a potential 31-mile rail trail, connecting communities from Inman, SC, to Zirconia, NC. 

As she considers the proposed Saluda Grade rails-to-trails system, Marianne notes, “I think it will provide a great place to exercise and connect people, programs, and audiences to our community. I feel that there are dots that can be connected and we can use the arts to do that. We could connect stories from the valley to stories along Landrum and Saluda through the Saluda Grade Trail. It could become a way to tell the story of our community through the arts.” 

“There’s some real work that will need to happen,” Marianne continues, “but if it’s planned well and people work together,” she believes that change could positively impact our community and the overall health of the railway. 

Surrounded by her husband, four siblings, two children, and grandson in the place they have always called home, Marianne can reflect on the power of the Saluda Grade Railway in her family’s life. Looking ahead, she is optimistic that it will continue to be “the connection” to a bright future for her family and the Tryon arts community. 

For more information about the Saluda Grade Trail, visit saludagradetrail.org.