History
Sunday Go-To-Meeting Best
This notable photograph of the congregation of Liberty Hill Baptist Church was taken on April 12, 1908. The church was officially chartered in 1866, but had been meeting since the 1840’s. A log building with dirt floors was erected in the Estatoe Community near the...
Isaac Hollifield – The Iconic Mountaineer
This classic photograph portrays the hardy mountain settlers who created a community out of the wilderness that was the Blue Ridge Mountains. Isaac Hollifield was a descendent of one of five Hollifield brothers who moved into the area that is now McDowell and Mitchell...
Grassy Creek Golf Course has Storied Past
The Spruce Pine Golf Course had its beginnings prior to World War II, when a nine-hole-course was built on what was then part of the S.T. Henry Dairy Farm at Grassy Creek. This land was once used as a hunting ground by both the Cherokee and Catawba Indians before the...
Veterans of the Great War
The Great War, which was referred to as World War I only after the Second World War, ended on November 11, 1918, when an armistice was arranged at the Western Front in France. The cessation of hostilities between the Allied Forces and Germany took effect at 11:00 AM...
Altapass to become Mitchell County’s largest town!?
When the Clinchfield Railroad made its way through the Roses Creek Community in the early 1900’s, the Holston Land Corporation erected a grand hotel along the railroad in 1915. They gave it the name Altapass – “Alta” (meaning a high-elevation of 2,623 feet) and...
Spruce Pine was Hockey Town, USA
In 1982, Robert Bailey and Alvin Barrier, owners of the Buck Stove Corporation, embarked on a bold plan to redevelop the old Harris School property as an entertainment, shopping, dining, and lodging complex. They decided that the bridge between downtown Spruce Pine...
A Local Author Writes About The Civil War
The following series of stories were written and submitted by local author Pat Turner Mitchell. They were originally published in the Mitchell News Journal on the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War - 2011. OFF TO WAR Most of us have heard of an ancestor who fought in...
The English Inn – Spruce Pine’s Foundation
No one knows for sure when the original part of the English Inn was built, but we do know that it has set, for at least two centuries, as the anchor of our community. The Inn was originally built by the Rowe family, at the busy crossing point of the Marion to...
The Revolutionary War Marches Through Mitchell County
In September and October of 1780, Overmountain Patriots made their way through the Toe River Valley to quash a threat from British Major Patrick Ferguson. Hundreds of families had settled “over the mountains” in what is now Western North Carolina, East Tennessee, and...
Hurricanes in the Mountains
September 2004 was a memorable time as, like in 1916, two major hurricanes struck the Toe River Valley in a short time. Hurricane Frances was first, dumping copious amounts of rainfall and sending streams out of their banks. A short time later, Hurricane Ivan...