From the Dennis Simmons Lumber Company, located just to the east, from 1900 to 1918, a 22-inch gauge tram railroad ran northwest to present NC 222 and along that route nine miles to Dixie and beyond toward Buckhorn. Fired by lightwood knots, the tram brought virgin timber to the sawmill and carried local farm families to and from town for commerce. The lumber company and tram played a vital role in Kenly's early history, as did the 1886 building of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.