Bat Cave is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Henderson County, North Carolina Henderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 116,281. Its county seat is Hendersonville. Henderson County is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. Histor ...

, United States and is part of the

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous ci ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...

. Named after a bat cave located on Bluerock Mountain (also known as Bat Cave Mountain), it is the largest known augen gneiss

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

fissure cave in North America and is a protected area, not open to the public. It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names. The community, located along the banks of the Broad River and within the Hickory Nut Gorge, features several shops, inns and a post office. It is also where three highways merge,

U.S. Route 64 U.S. Route 64 (US 64) is an east–west United States highway that runs for 2,326 miles (3,743 km) from Nags Head in eastern North Carolina to just southwest of the Four Corners in northeast Arizona. The western terminus is at U.S. Route 1 ...

(US 64) from Hendersonville, U.S. Route 74A (US 74A) from

, and

North Carolina Highway 9 North Carolina Highway 9 (NC 9) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It serves as a connector route from South Carolina Highway 9 to eastern portions of the Appalachians around Asheville. Route descriptio ...

(NC 9) from Black Mountain, becoming Lake Lure Highway; which then continues in a southeasterly direction to Chimney Rock and

Lake Lure Lake Lure is a town in Rutherford County, North Carolina, United States. In 2020 the town population was 1,634. Lake Lure was incorporated in 1927, and acquired the lake after which it is named in 1965. History In 1902, Dr. Lucius B. Morse and ...

History

The area was first connected by a

Drovers' road A drovers' road, drove ''roador droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; ot ...

, a natural access into the interior of the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsy ...

for drovers who were moving livestock, mostly flocks of turkeys and some geese, herds of hogs and some cattle in and out of the mountains to the markets. Established in 1798, it connected the area with

, following on what is today US 74A. In 1879, the Bat Cave Post Office opened; previously known as Chimney Rock Post Office, it originally opened in 1843 (located where what is now Lake Lure) and had a series of closures before its relocation and renaming. The post office was destroyed, as was much of the community, during the flood of 1916, but was later rebuilt. In the 1920s, the Bat Cave community, and its famous cave, became a popular tourist attraction. The Bat Cave Preserve was setup in response to that popularity and help protect the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

Indiana bats as well as several other species of bats that inhabit the cave. In 1948, Navy Captain George Bond established the Valley Clinic and Hospital. Five years later he was recognized as "Doctor of the Year.” In the 1970s, the Bat Cave Volunteer Fire Department was organized.

Notable person

* George F. Bond,

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

undersea The underwater environment is the region below the surface of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characterist ...

and

hyperbaric medicine Hyperbaric medicine is medical treatment in which an ambient pressure greater than sea level atmospheric pressure is a necessary component. The treatment comprises hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), the medical use of oxygen at an ambient pressure ...

References

External links

*
Henderson County Visitors Information Center
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Henderson County, North Carolina Unincorporated communities in North Carolina Asheville metropolitan area