Poplar 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 ...

in Mitchell County,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, United States. The community is located along

North Carolina Highway 197 North Carolina Highway 197 (NC 197) is a South-to-North state highway in Western North Carolina. The route is approximately in length and with its continuation into Tennessee as SR 395 connects Erwin, Tennessee to Flat Creek, North Carolin ...

(NC 197), at the banks of the Hollow Poplar Creek and between the southern slopes of the

Unaka Range The Unaka Range is a mountain range on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, in the southeastern United States. It is a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains physiographic province. The Unakas stret ...

and the

North Toe River The North Toe River is the River source, headwaters of the Nolichucky River and a tributary in the French Broad River Drainage basin, basin. From its source at Sugar Gap, between Bald Mountain and Sugar Mountain (North Carolina), Sugar Mountain, i ...

. It is also the last community along the

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

Blue Ridge Subdivision The Blue Ridge Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It was formerly part of the CSX Huntington West Division. It became part of the CSX Florence Division o ...

before crossing into

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

towards

Erwin Erwin may refer to: People Given name * Erwin Chargaff (1905–2002), Austrian biochemist * Erwin Dold (1919–2012), German concentration camp commandant in World War 2 * Erwin Hauer (1926–2017), Austrian-born American sculptor * Egon Erwin Kisc ...

History

The community was named after an enormous

poplar tree ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The w ...

that once stood in the area; hollowed out, it supposedly served not only as a barn for livestock, but also as shelter for Confederate Soldiers traveling through the area during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Originally called "Hollow Poplar," a post office was established in 1872 of the same name; but in 1892, both the community and post office became simply Poplar. In 1902, the South & Western Railroad established rail service in the area (today CSX). In 1949, the Post Office closed and combined with the Relief Post Office.

References

Unincorporated communities in Mitchell County, North Carolina Unincorporated communities in North Carolina {{MitchellCountyNC-geo-stub