September 13, 1916 was the day that Erwin hung the elephant, putting this little town on the map perhaps more so than the Clinchfield Rail Road itself. Nicknamed “Murderous Mary,” the elephant stepped on the head of her trainer in a circus in Kingsport. Fueled by a media frenzy that depicted the poor beast as pure evil, Johnson City mayor, S.E. Miller convinced her owner, Charlie Sparks, to have the elephant come to Erwin where a 100-ton crane would be waiting. At 4:45 PM, poor Mary was hanged and a trumpet sounded. Since that day, some still hear the trumpet sounding at the exact time of her untimely death.
