On April 8, 1928, the first machine-made oriental design rug came off the loom in Leaksville in Rockingham County. Branded Karastan, the process used to make the rug replicated the detailed craftsmanship of a hand-woven rug.
The Karastan method has its roots in 1912 when retailer Marshall Field acquired several textile mills in Rockingham County. His employee Eugene Clark, a New England inventor, began to modify a spool Axminster power loom in 1926 to pull pile yarns through the back, making it possible to weave up to 50 colors with a soft feel and hand-knotted appearance on both sides.
The advanced manufacturing process led to Karastan rugs becoming known as "mystery rugs." At the 1933-34 World’s Fair in Chicago more than 5 million people walked on a large Karastan traditional Persian-patterned rug, which when cleaned displayed its original luster, earning the brand a reputation for producing "wonder rugs."
Karastan expanded to produce carpets woven with its innovative Kara-loc process and on computer-controlled Van de Wiele Wilton looms. Now a subsidiary of Mohawk Industries, Karastan still makes wool rugs in Eden and is the only U.S. maker of Axminster spool rugs.
Images from UNC Libraries Commons and Historic New England.