Black Mountain is a town in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,426 at the 2020 United States census. It is part of the Asheville metropolitan area. The town is named for the old train stop at the Black Mountain Depot and is located at the southern end of the Black Mountain range of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Southern Appalachians.

History

Black Mountain in its present form was incorporated on March 4, 1893. The first recorded inhabitants of the area were the Cherokee. A road was built through the area in 1850 and a railroad followed in 1879. The Black Mountain College Historic District, Black Mountain Downtown Historic District, Blue Ridge Assembly Historic District, Dougherty Heights Historic District, Rafael Guastavino Sr., Estate, Intheoaks, Monte Vista Hotel, South Montreat Road Historic District, and Thomas Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. In September 2024, Black Mountain was severely impacted by flooding from Hurricane Helene. The town's power, water, and sewer systems went down for days. Roads and bridges were washed away. The headquarters and distribution center for the Ingles supermarket chain is based in Black Mountain. The company's local facilities were flooded, leading to mass closures, shortages, and payment processing issues at grocery stores across the chain.

About the town

The downtown area has many eclectic shops, attracting seasonal tourism, a main staple of the local economy. There are also many quaint bed and breakfasts. The town is near several Christian retreat areas including Ridgecrest and Montreat Conference Center. Black Mountain College was formerly located near the town, but the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, dedicated to the experimental educational institution's history, is now located in downtown Asheville. Black Mountain is also the site of the Swannanoa Valley Museum. The Black Mountain Center for the Arts is located down the street from the museum. In 2002 the community raised 1.2 million dollars to buy the old Town Hall and convert it into the Art Center. '' Black Mountain News'' is a weekly newspaper covering Black Mountain and the Swannanoa Valley area.

Geography

Black Mountain is located in eastern Buncombe County. The town of Montreat borders Black Mountain to the north, and the unincorporated community of Swannanoa is on the western border. U.S. Route 70 (State Street) is the main road through the center of town. Interstate 40 passes just to the south of downtown, with access from exits 64 and 65. Via I-40, it is west to Asheville and east to Morganton. The

Swannanoa River The Swannanoa River flows through the Swannanoa Valley of the region of Western North Carolina, and is a major tributary to the French Broad River. Its headwaters arise in Black Mountain, North Carolina; however, it also has a major tributary ...

flows from east to west through the town, rising just to the east at Swannanoa Gap on the crest of the Appalachians. The Swannanoa River flows west to the

French Broad River The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows from near the town of Rosman, North Carolina, Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Tennessee, where its confluence with the Holston R ...

, part of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

basin that ultimately flows to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

via the Mississippi River, while Swannanoa Creek east of the gap is part of the Catawba River- Santee River system, reaching the Atlantic Ocean north of

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town of Black Mountain has a total area of , of which , or 0.23%, is water.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census and American Community Survey 2021(5 year estimates), there were 8,426 people and 3,928 households residing in the town. The racial makeup of the town was 85.37%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 4.0%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.21% Native American, 0.77% Asian, 0.01%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.57% from other races, and 4.64% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 4.43% of the population. There were 3,928 households, out of which 17.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.2% were married couples living together, 36.5% had a female householder with no husband present. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 26.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.66. In the town, the population was spread out, with 14.9% under the age of 18, 2.5% from 18 to 24, 19.3% from 25 to 44, 25.4% from 45 to 64, and 37.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 57.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 67.6 males. The median income for a household in the town was $68,333, and the median income for a family was $85,262. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $20,509. About 4.6% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 2.3% of those under age 18 and 3.0% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 7,511 people, 3,340 households, and 2,027 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 3,703 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 90.84%

, 6.27%

, 0.31% Native American, 0.87% Asian, 0.04%

, 0.45% from other races, and 1.22% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 0.81% of the population. There were 3,340 households, out of which 22.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.2% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.3% were non-families. 34.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.15 and the average family size was 2.75. In the town, the population was spread out, with 19.1% under the age of 18, 7.1% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 26.1% from 45 to 64, and 22.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.3 males. The median income for a household in the town was $35,541, and the median income for a family was $43,373. Males had a median income of $28,604 versus $22,476 for females. The

for the town was $20,509. About 7.6% of families and 10.1% of the population were below the

, including 14.2% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over.

In popular culture

Black Mountain is the site of the Three Billboards featured in the 2017 film, '' Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'', with one billboard exposed in April 2016, with the other two covered up. Black Mountain is featured in the 2009 novel '' One Second After'' and its subsequent sequels by William R. Forstchen, a town resident. Many local institutions and residents appear in the novel, although the story itself is fictional.

Government and infrastructure

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety (formerly the North Carolina Department of Corrections) operates the Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women. It opened on July 7, 2008, taking women previously at the Black Mountain Correctional Center for Women.Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women
" North Carolina Department of Public Safety. Retrieved on December 17, 2015. "Street Address 55 Lake Eden Road Black Mountain, N.C. 28711"

Education

* Black Mountain College (1933–1957) * Montreat College (Black Mountain)

Events

* Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF)

Notable people

Literary

* Patricia Cornwell * William R. Forstchen * Nicholas Sparks

Music

* McDibbs music venue * Bob Dalsemer – Internationally-known

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

and contra dance writer, musician, and caller *

Roberta Flack Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025) was an American singer and pianist known for her emotive, genre-blending ballads that spanned R&B, jazz, Folk music, folk, and pop and contributed to the birth of the quiet storm ...

singer, songwriter and musician * Floating Action (Seth Kauffman) * The Jellyrox (Matthew Langston) * The Morris Brothers country music group * David Wilcox singer-songwriter * Artimus Pyle drummer Lynyrd Skynyrd

Architecture

* Rafael Guastavino

Athletes and sporting figures

* Brad Daugherty NBA player, 5x All-Star,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

commentator, and NASCAR team owner * Brad Johnson NFL quarterback, 2x

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (since 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's All-star, star players. The format has changed ...

selection, led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their Super Bowl XXXVII championship * Sammy Stewart MLB pitcher, 1983 World Series champion with the Baltimore Orioles * Roy Williams NCAA basketball coach

Religion

* L. Nelson Bell missionary, ''Christianity Today'' founder * Andrew Brunson American pastor imprisoned in Turkey

Film, television, and theater

* Matt Lutz actor

Politicians

* Roy A. Taylor congressman

Diplomats

* Philip S. Kosnett Foreign Service Officer; U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Kosovo 2018-2021

Other

* Regina Lynch-Hudson, publicist, travel writer, and historian

References

External links

Town of Black Mountain official website

Black Mountain - Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control Towns in North Carolina Towns in Buncombe County, North Carolina Asheville metropolitan area