Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Saluda, NC

Saluda is a small city in Polk County (with small portions extending into Henderson County) in southwestern North Carolina, sitting at an elevation of about 2,097 feet on Main Street in the Blue Ridge foothills near the South Carolina state line.

Saluda's name comes from the Cherokee word Tsaludiyi, meaning "green corn place," and European settlers first knew the area as Pace's Ridge, after the Pace family.

The town was settled in 1878 and incorporated in 1881, the same year Colonel Andrew Tanner — who supervised construction of the railroad and ran the town's first hotel — was elected its first mayor.

Saluda sits at the top of the Saluda Grade, which was the steepest main line standard-gauge railway line in the United States until Norfolk Southern ceased operations on the line in 2001.

The Saluda Grade drops about 600 feet per mile over its roughly 3-mile stretch, includes some 50 curves (several of them horseshoe curves), and was built with convict labor — the first large-scale use of convict labor on a railroad project.

The grade was infamous for runaway trains in its early years: in 1880 alone, fourteen men were killed on the 3-mile stretch of track.

In February 2023, Norfolk Southern agreed to sell 31 miles of the Saluda Grade to the Saluda Grade Trail Conservancy, which plans to convert the segment into a rail trail.

The 2020 census counted 631 residents in Saluda, living in roughly 370 households — down from 713 residents in 2010, with many of the town's homes used seasonally.

In its 1880s resort heyday, eight passenger trains passed through Saluda daily and the cool mountain town drew about 3,000 visitors a year, many of them wealthy lowcountry families escaping the summer heat.

Saluda's best-known festivals are Coon Dog Day — a homecoming celebration with a parade, street dance and 5K race held the first Saturday after July 4 — and the Saluda Arts Festival, held the third Saturday in May.