Preview | When the Economy Changes
Preview: 10/30/2026 | 20sVideo has Closed Captions
Dozens of NC towns lost their biggest employer. These three did something with what was left.
When a mill or a plant closes in NC, the town feels it for generations. Explore how Kannapolis built a biotech research campus on the site of the largest single-day layoff in state history, how Henderson County turned 19 miles of abandoned railroad into the Ecusta Trail and how Surry County families replanted tobacco land as vineyards.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
ncIMPACT is a local public television program presented by PBS NC
Preview | When the Economy Changes
Preview: 10/30/2026 | 20sVideo has Closed Captions
When a mill or a plant closes in NC, the town feels it for generations. Explore how Kannapolis built a biotech research campus on the site of the largest single-day layoff in state history, how Henderson County turned 19 miles of abandoned railroad into the Ecusta Trail and how Surry County families replanted tobacco land as vineyards.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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ncIMPACT is available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- For decades, textiles and tobacco built North Carolina's small towns.
But when those industries left, they took jobs with them.
- You come down here and windows are boarded up.
It has an abandoned feel to it.
- We find three communities building a new future out of what was left behind.
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ncIMPACT is a local public television program presented by PBS NC