Bearwallow is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

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, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Hi ...

United States and is part of the

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populous city in Western North Carolina a ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located along Gerton Highway ( US 74A), within Hickory Nut Gorge, flanked by Burntshirt, Grant, and Little Bearwallow mountains.

History

The area was first connected by a

Drovers' road A drovers' road, drove road, droveway, or simply a drove, is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to marketplace, market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were anci ...

, a natural access into the interior of the

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

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. It was also during the 1790s when William Mills, a pioneer settler, named the area after a much-frequented bear wallow located there. The "Bear Wallow" post office was established in 1858; it was the first post office in the area, followed by

Bat Cave The Batcave is a subterranean location appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is the headquarters of the superhero Batman, whose secret identity is Bruce Wayne and his partners, consisting of caves beneath his personal r ...

(1879) and

Pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes Slurry, slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic or pneumatic energy. Mechanical pumps serve in a wide range of application ...

(1883). In 1894, the space between the names was removed, becoming Bearwallow. In 1951, the post office was closed and combined with the Gerton Post Office.

References

External links

* {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Henderson County, North Carolina Unincorporated communities in North Carolina