Gillespie Gap
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Gillespie Gap
Gillespie Gap (el. ), also known as Etchoe Pass, is a mountain pass along the Blue Ridge Mountains. Historically, two events occurred at the pass. The first was in 1761 when thirty men, under the command of Francis Marion, were sent to dislodge an encampment of Cherokee warriors at the pass; ambushed, Marion lost twenty-one men. The second was in 1780 when the Overmountain Men crossed the pass on their way to Kings Mountain. NC 226 traverses through the gap, which connects Marion and Spruce Pine. Intersecting at the gap is NC 226A, which goes to nearby Little Switzerland. The Blue Ridge Parkway (milepost 330.9) also passes through the gap, providing scenic views along the adjacent ridge lines. The gap is also along the Eastern Continental Divide The Eastern Continental Divide, Eastern Divide or Appalachian Divide is a hydrographic divide in eastern North America that separates the easterly Atlantic Seaboard watershed from the westerly Gulf of Mexico ...
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McDowell County, North Carolina
McDowell County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,578. Its county seat is Marion. McDowell County comprises the Marion, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Hickory-Lenoir, NC Combined Statistical Area. History Archaeological excavations performed by Dr. David Moore during the early 1980s, revealed artifacts and other evidence that the earliest inhabitants of McDowell County lived there from the Woodland period and Mississippian culture era, from 250 to 1500 AD. Dr. Moore discovered this material in an area close to the Catawba River, in and around an unusual topographical site known as Round Hill. Both the historic Cherokee and Catawba Indians were Native American peoples known to live in what is now McDowell County, and they had been there long before any Europeans. These Native Americans were living in this section for centuries before the Spanish Juan Pardo's 1566 expedition to ...
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Marion, North Carolina
Marion is a city in and the county seat of McDowell County, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1844, the city was named in honor of Brigadier General Francis Marion, the American Revolutionary War Hero whose talent in guerrilla warfare earned him the name "Swamp Fox". Marion's Main Street Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The population was 7,717 at the 2020 Census. Geography Marion is located at (35.683150, -82.005855). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . Demographics 2020 census As of the 2020 United States census, there were 7,717 people, 2,844 households, and 1,879 families residing in the city. 2010 census As of the 2010 Census, there were 7,838 people, 2,146 households, and 1,283 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,441.9 people per square mile (902.6/km2). There were 2,351 housing units at an average density of 690.7 per square mile (267.0/km2). The rac ...
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Transportation In McDowell County, North Carolina
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. Transport enables human trade, which is essential for the development of civilizations. Transport infrastructure consists of both fixed installations, including roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals, and pipelines, and terminals such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals, refueling depots (including fueling docks and fuel stations), and seaports. Terminals may be used both for interchange of passengers and cargo and for maintenance. Means of transport are any of the different kinds of transport facilities used to carry people or cargo. They may include vehicles, riding animals, and pack animals. Vehicles may inclu ...
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Mountain Passes Of North Carolina
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres (1,000 feet) above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanism, which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years. Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering, through slumping and other forms of mass wasting, as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers. High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level at similar latitude. These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains: different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and ...
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Landforms Of Mitchell County, North Carolina
A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, Stratum, stratification, rock exposure and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, mounds, hills, ridges, cliffs, valleys, rivers, peninsulas, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic Waterbody, waterbodies and sub-surface features. Mountains, hills, Plateau, plat ...
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Landforms Of McDowell County, North Carolina
A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, mounds, hills, ridges, cliffs, valleys, rivers, peninsulas, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbodies and sub-surface features. Mountains, hills, plateau ...
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Eastern Continental Divide
The Eastern Continental Divide, Eastern Divide or Appalachian Divide is a hydrographic divide in eastern North America that separates the easterly Atlantic Seaboard watershed from the westerly Gulf of Mexico watershed. The divide nearly spans the United States from south of Lake Ontario through the Florida peninsula, and consists of raised terrain including the Appalachian Mountains to the north, the southern Piedmont Plateau and lowland ridges in the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the south. Water including rainfall and snowfall, lakes, streams and rivers on the eastern/southern side of the divide drains to the Atlantic Ocean; water on the western/northern side of the divide drains to the Gulf of Mexico. The ECD is one of six continental hydrographic divides of North America which define several drainage basins, each of which drains to a particular body of water. __TOC__ Course The Eastern Triple Divide is the northern terminus of the Eastern Continental Divide where it inter ...
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Little Switzerland, North Carolina
Little Switzerland is an unincorporated community in McDowell and Mitchell counties of North Carolina, United States. It is located along North Carolina Highway 226A (NC 226A) off the Blue Ridge Parkway, directly north of Marion and south of Spruce Pine. The elevation is above sea level. At this location, in 1909, the "Switzerland Company" was founded by North Carolina State Supreme Court Justice Heriot Clarkson to construct a resort village. Covenants in the rules included no alcohol and one house per lot. History On January 17, 1964, the Switzerland Company filed a suit against the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway noting that it was seeking a right of way of 800 feet wide through the resort and were not paying an adequate amount. The suit was settled with the Parkway getting 200 feet wide access and paying $25,000. It is now the narrowest point on the Parkway in North Carolina. The access to the Switzerland Inn is one of only two commercial access roads on th ...
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North Carolina Highway 226A
North Carolina Highway 226A (NC 226A) is an alternate route, alternate state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Signed along two segments that branch from North Carolina Highway 226, NC 226: The first connecting the community of Little Switzerland, North Carolina, Little Switzerland; the second as a bypass west of Bakersville, North Carolina, Bakersville. It is also distinctive as being one of two alternate state routes in North Carolina, the other being North Carolina Highway 268A, NC 268A. Route description The first section, a two-lane mountain highway also known as the Diamondback by motorcycle enthusiasts, begins near Woodlawn, North Carolina, Woodlawn, from U.S. Route 221 in North Carolina, US 221. Once on NC 226A, the first sign is a notice to truckers indicating steep winding road ahead, trucks not recommended. For the first , it marginally increases in elevation, yet curvy, as it follows westerly along the banks of the Armstrong Cre ...
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Spruce Pine, North Carolina
Spruce Pine is a town in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,175 at the 2010 census. History Spruce Pine was founded in 1907 when the Clinchfield Railroad made its way up the North Toe River from Erwin, Tennessee. The town was originally centered around a tavern operated by Isaac English, located on an old roadway that ran from Cranberry, North Carolina, down to Marion, NC. The Old English Inn still stands at its original location near the center of town. In 1923, after an escaped convict allegedly raped a local resident, a large armed mob rounded up scores of men who were laboring on a road construction project and forced them to leave town on boxcars. North Carolina Governor Cameron Morrison deployed National Guard troops to Spruce Pine so that the workers could return and complete the road. The railroad, combined with a rapidly expanding mining industry (the town is the namesake of the famous Spruce Pine Mining District) made Spruce Pine the l ...
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North Carolina Highway 226
North Carolina Highway 226 (NC 226) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Traveling north–south through Western North Carolina, it connects the cities and towns of Grover, Shelby, Marion, Spruce Pine and Bakersville. It also a scenic byway in the South Mountains area and connects with the summer colony of Little Switzerland, via NC 226A. Route description NC 226 begins at US 29, in Grover, approximately from the South Carolina state line. Through downtown Grover, it goes northwesterly, through Patterson Springs, to Shelby. In concurrency with US 74, it stays south of the downtown area, then splits with US 74 continuing north to Metcalf, where it becomes the South Mountain Scenery scenic byway. The byway, which stretches along NC 226 to Marion, is designated for its extensive views of the South Mountains. Traversing through this rural area of farmlands and forest, NC 226 goes the through Ca ...
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Mitchell County, North Carolina
Mitchell County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 14,903. Its county seat is Bakersville, North Carolina, Bakersville, population 439 (2022), elevation 2470 ft. The county is home to the "Mineral City of the World", Spruce Pine and Roan Mountain which includes the world's largest natural rhododendron garden, and the longest stretch of grassy bald in the Appalachian range. Throughout the year such festivals as North Carolina Mineral and Gem Festival and North Carolina Rhododendron Festival bring many visitors to the area. History The county was formed in 1861 from parts of Burke County, North Carolina, Burke County, Caldwell County, North Carolina, Caldwell County, McDowell County, North Carolina, McDowell County, Watauga County, North Carolina, Watauga County, and Yancey County, North Carolina, Yancey County. It was named for Elisha Mitchell, professor of ma ...
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