Poplar 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 ...

in Mitchell County,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, 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 Carol ...

(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 stre ...

and the

North Toe River The North Toe River is the headwaters of the Nolichucky River and a tributary in the French Broad River basin. From its source at Sugar Gap, between Bald Mountain and Sugar Mountain, it flows westerly through Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey cou ...

. It is also the last community along the

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

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 U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

towards Erwin.

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 we ...

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

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Originally called "Hollow Poplar," a post office was established in 1872 of the same name. In 1892, both the community and post office were named as 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