Shelby Once Had Wagons of Cotton So Close You Could Walk Across Them

After the Carolina Central (later S.A.L.) Railroad reached Shelby in 1875, the town became a major cotton trading center for the surrounding region. According to Benjamin Baxter Suttle, there were times when wagons loaded with cotton stretched from the Court Square almost all the way to the railroad depot. The wagons were packed so tightly together that a man could literally walk across the tops of the cotton bales for several blocks without touching the ground. One local man, Gus Stephens, was known to do exactly that as a prank. Cotton at the time sold for about seven to ten cents a pound, and entire trainloads were shipped out from Shelby to distant markets.
Source: Mamie Jones