Tweetsie Railroad is a Wild West–themed amusement park built around a working three-mile narrow-gauge steam railroad. The ride is the heart of the experience: visitors board a 1917 Baldwin locomotive that loops through pine forest, stages a mock train robbery, and pulls into a saloon-style station. Around the ride are gold-panning, a small Ferris wheel, a country fair, and live cowboy shows.
It is unmistakably a tourist attraction aimed at families with young children, but the railroad itself is a piece of Appalachian industrial history that would otherwise be lost. Open spring through autumn; about ten minutes south of Boone on US-321.