This review is about the Town Park right next to the Town Hall. It's a beautiful clean, well…read moremaintained green space with a little something for everyone in the family: two sets of age-appropriate playground equipment, paved greenway, amphitheater, restrooms, soccer field, benches, fire pit, nostalgic barn, picnic tables and shelters, outdoor exercise equipment, babbling brook, and dog park! If you're in Banner Elk find this gem and get out and play!

This is an amazing exhibit and not to be missed if visiting Valdese. It documents the history of…read morethe Waldensian people from their lives in the Alps of Italy to their settlement in Valdese. The cave is awesome, and the path to the overlook is a difficult one. It really gives you perspective on what their banishment to the mountains must have been like. The Tron house is an actual house of the original settlement. It is fascinating to see what houses at that time period looked like. Great exhibit--I highly recommend it.

Amazing tour!!! Wonderful history! I highly recommend coming here to learn THE TRUTH!read more

I like old towns like this with a big grassy square, a monument to some historical dude named…read moreBurns, and some neat shops. It has a quilt shop on the square, some churches, an old historic inn that Elvis stayed at, a coffee house, some galleries, and a few places to eat that nook neat. Worth a stop if you are traveling through, but not a destination unless you are going for some big hiking at Mt. Mitchell or some of the other great outdoors places it has nearby. I'd stop here again.

The road from Asheville was finished last year and already the town is perking up with new…read morerestaurants and longer hours for some of the existing eating establishments. The Grapevine has really great women's clothing, Appalachain Java has nice food all the way until 8pm, Homeplace brewery has some kind of food truck each night, music, trivia, and great beer. Rescue Dog Cafe and Burnsville Donut Company are keeping East Main Street lively and well fed, and Garden Deli and Snapdragon are consistently good on the Town Square. Rad Dawgs and the ice cream parlor next to it are just plain fun. I'm addicted to the Gyrate taco there. Ye Olde Country store has quality deli items and mile high sandwiches. Main Street Shoes has really cute footwear and YummiYarns has a great selection of yarn for knitting, crochet, or weaving. Quilt and Code has quilting supplies on one side and computer help on the other. There's a terrific health food store, an outdoor living store that just opened, a music store, a couple galleries including one that is part of Toe River Arts Council, Dark Sky Wood handcrafted furniture, an outfitter store, Parkway Playhouse, Yancey Theater, a wine shop, a couple of antique stores, a pizza shop and the new Mountain Chef Bistro. NuWray Inn, the Terrell House, and Carolina Country Motel all offer accomadations. The Chamber of Commerce and the Visitors Center can direct you to the History Museum and other points of interest. There's a Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings and free events for families and kids on the square on Saturday mornings during the summer. Also there is bargain shopping at New to You furniture, Felicity's Closet, Alexandra's Closet, and Barkin Basement. There is definitely plenty to keep you busy for a full day or more.

Boone is a good, not great, college town. Its not an Athens Georgia, but Id send my kid to…read moreAppalachian State if he wanted to go. Really nice group of eateries, a few "ok" and not so great bars. Great offee shops. Tons of outdoor experiences await nearby. Fun shopping on main street and the Wautaga Co. Farmers Market is fantastic on Saturday mornings. App State is a great school.

McDowell County is named for Joseph McDowell, who was a soldier in the American Revolutionary War…read moreand who took part in the Battle of Kings Mountain. The county was created in 1842 and Marion has been the county seat ever since. This building is the second to serve as the county courthouse, replacing the one that was built in 1844. It was completed in 1923. It has a Neoclassical architecture with a central block flanked by slightly recessed wings. The features horizontal brickwork on the first story and five tall vertical windows on the upper levels and a flat roofline. It was designed by Erle G. Stillwell who is also responsible for the Henderson (NC) City Hall and the Sumter (SC) City Hall plus a large number of theaters across the southeast. [Review 641 of 2025 - 4128 in North Carolina - 24202 overall]

Support staff, Clerks, Deputies, etc., all very nice and professional. District Attorney's Office…read morereasonable and friendly. Courthouse beautiful on the outside, a bit of a dog on the inside. (Needs to be renovated.) District Court is in the BASEMENT fo the building. Roadside parking available, but you made need to drive a block or two to find it. DON'T TRY TO BRING A CELL PHONE IN, as you'll have to turn around and walk back to the car. There also is a security checkpoint, so leave your knives, brass knuckes & mace in the car. Beautiful part of the state. Easy to find. Nice people.

The current Burke County Justice Center is a modern judicial facility designed with contemporary…read morefunction and completed in 1975. It is a single story buff-colored brick building in the center of Morganton on grounds that have a number of veterans and war memorials. This is the third courthouse to serve the county. Burke County was created in 1777 and Morganton has been the county seat ever since. The county was named for Thomas Burke, who was a member of the Continental Congress and governor of North Carolina. Morganton was named for Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, a hero of the American Revolutionary War. The justice center has street parking in front and it is located a short walk from the historic 1835 courthouse. [Review 543 of 2026 - 4638 in North Carolina - 25725 overall]

It was easy to spot this marker on the highway at the intersection of Penland Road. It is about as…read moreclose to the actual subject so that it can be seen by passersby. The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "Penland School. Founded 1929 by Lucy Morgan (1889-1981) to promote traditional crafts including pottery, metalworking and weaving. Campus 1 mile southwest." There is more information online. The school originated from Morgan's efforts to revive traditional weaving in western North Carolina, using a cabin at the Episcopal Appalachian School to train locals and sell their work to tourists. In collaboration with other regional craft leaders, Morgan helped establish the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild and expanded Penland's curriculum to include pottery, metalwork, and silversmithing. After her retirement, Bill Brown introduced woodworking and glassblowing, and today the school spans 400 acres, hosting over 1,200 artists annually. This is marker number N-46 as it was erected by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History in 2007. [Review 1289 of 2025 - 4434 in North Carolina - 24841 overall]

Yancey County was established in 1833 from parts of Burke and Buncombe counties and named for…read moreBartlett Yancey, a North Carolina congressman and education reformer. The county seat, Burnsville, honors naval hero Otway Burns, and the region became a hub for agriculture, mica mining, and mountain crafts. Prior, it was Cherokee land. Today, Yancey is known for its rugged terrain, including Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi. (Oddly, not Mitchell County, but hey, whatever.) The original courthouse in Burnsville was a modest wooden structure built in 1834, replaced by a brick building in 1836, and then by the third building, a Classical Revival courthouse in 1908, and now serves as the Burnsville Town Hall. The current, fourth courthouse, was completed in 1965. It is a two-story red brick and concrete building designed in a restrained Modern Colonial Revival style, with a central peaked entrance and a slender cupola rising from the roof that adds vertical emphasis without grandeur. There is free street parking around the Burnsville Square and a dedicated parking lot to the rear. There are clear "no cameras" signs posted so I was not able to take pictures of the inside of the courthouse. The second-floor courtroom serves as the building's centerpiece, while county offices occupy the lower level. [Review 1227 of 2025 - 4412 in North Carolina - 24779 overall]