John Wesley McElroy House
· Scraped Hmdb
Pull over and take a look! You’re about to see a slice of life from 1840s North Carolina. This is the John Wesley McElroy House. Built around 1840, the house reflects the Federal-Greek Revival style that was popular at…
Nu Wray Inn
· 0.1 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Imagine a hotel older than the town it calls home! That's the Nu Wray Inn, built in 1833, a year *before* Burnsville, North Carolina, even existed. Originally a humble log structure with just eight bedrooms, the inn…
The Mountains That Power Every Computer Chip
· 4.6 mi
These same mountains hold a secret the whole tech world depends on. Just over the ridge from Micaville, around the town of Spruce Pine, the ground holds some of the purest quartz on the planet. We're talking quartz so…
Isinglass: Glass Before Glass Could Take the Heat
· 4.6 mi
Long before anybody made glass that could survive an open flame, people had a clever fix: mica. Peeled into clear sheets, mica was called isinglass, and it became the little see-through window in old wood and coal…
Micaville: A Town Named for a Mineral
· 4.7 mi
Here's a town that's exactly what it says on the label. Micaville sits in Yancey County, deep in the Blue Ridge of western North Carolina, and it took its name straight from the mineral pulled out of the ground all…
The Rock You Can Peel Like a Book
· 4.7 mi
Pick up a chunk of the mica that named this town and you can do something almost no other rock allows: peel it apart like the pages of a book. Geologists call this perfect cleavage in one direction. Inside mica, the…
The Mineral Hiding in Your Toaster
· 4.7 mi
Mica pulls off a rare double act: it blocks electricity and it laughs at heat. Most materials are good at one or the other. Mica does both. It's an outstanding electrical insulator, meaning current won't pass through…
Penland School of Craft
· 9.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Pull over for a second – this unassuming spot is actually home to the internationally recognized Penland School of Craft. Founded in 1929 by Lucy Morgan, Penland began as a way to help local women supplement their…
Dellinger Mill
· 13.3 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Imagine a time when this quiet spot buzzed with activity, all thanks to the Dellinger Mill. This unassuming building played a vital role in the lives of folks around Hawk, North Carolina. Built around 1901 to 1903, the…
Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School
· 15.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Pull over here a sec, because this unassuming building has a powerful story to tell about education and opportunity. This is the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School. In the early 1920s, communities across the South…
Blue Ridge Parkway - Craggy Gardens
· 15.7 mi · Historical Marker
America's most-visited unit of the National Park System, stretching 469 miles along the Appalachian spine.