HAYWOOD COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — History was made at the North Carolina-Tennessee border Friday night as the first permitted industrial hemp plants were trucked into the mountains.

The plants are part of a state-sanctioned pilot program to bring back a long abandoned industry.

The approval process to grow hemp started in March and is already moving forward. And the beginning stage being started just hours ago when a refrigerated truck carrying more than 6,700 plants pulled into the first rest stop along eastbound Interstate 40 in North Carolina.

The female plants are clones grown in Colorado that will be used by area mountain farmers to get the process going here. There are two strains that were cultured and then established in soil.

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Frank Kracher ~ WLOS.com ~