It was front page news when E. Pat Hall died in 1978. He was only 57. A former army guy, he made his millions buying, renovating, and selling textile machinery and facilities. He partnered with a few other businessmen and bought the old Naval Ammunition Depot near Charlotte, transforming it into Arrowood, a major industrial center. There was lots more, and when Carowinds started coming together he set up an office in his personal rail car on site. The “Carolina and Nowhere Railroad” was an opulent affair with a marble desktop, rich red carpet and wallpaper, and plenty of phones and buttons to summon his people with. And lots of summons he made, working nearly non-stop 100 hours per week.
Publicly, he always claimed that he wanted to build the park for the community and never expected it to break even for a long time. If so, it was a good thing because it was not to ever make him any return on the significant investment. After a disappointing second season of operation and facing mounting financial pressures from construction loan payments and rising inflation, he was forced to sell the park to Taft Broadcasting. Meantime, he considered running for governor a couple of times, eventually managing his friend Ed O’Herron’s failed run. A final, ultimately fatal heart attack landed him in the hospital, but didn’t do a thing to slow him down. With several phone lines installed, he kept at it, including finalizing his Christmas shopping list where he had custom dolls manufactured featuring look-alike faces of his friends. These would be delivered the following month, several weeks after his death, giving them one last thing to smile about from the industrialist, mover-and-shaker, and dreamer. It was individuals like E. Pat Hall that made possible many of the regional parks we’ve enjoyed over the decades, so thanks Pat. You did well.
The first photo below is from the Carowinds archives; all others are from local news articles. For more great shots of him check out the book Images of Modern America: Carowinds.
