Qualla: Watauga County, North Carolina

Watauga County, North Carolina: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jmvannoy, CC BY-SA 4.0. For most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the rest of North Carolina called this place the Lost Provinces. Hemmed in by mountains too steep for railroads and too tall for state highways, Watauga County sat geographically inside North Carolina but psychologically closer to Tennessee, with whom it shared its weather, its accents, and most of its outlet to the wider world. The name Watauga itself comes from a Cherokee word with several proposed meanings - beautiful water, whispering waters, village of many springs, river of islands - and any of them fit.

Image: Jmvannoy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Watauga County, North Carolina: The High Country

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Stansberry, CC BY 3.0. Watauga County was formed in 1849 from parts of Ashe, Caldwell, Wilkes, and Yancey counties. It covers 313 square miles, all of it inside the Appalachian Mountains. The county's highest point is Calloway Peak, the summit of Grandfather Mountain, sharing crowns with neighboring Av...

Image: Brian Stansberry | CC BY 3.0

Watauga County, North Carolina: Stubbornly Unionist, Then Stubbornly Republican

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeremy Mikkola from Boone, NC, CC BY 2.0. When the Civil War came, Watauga's mountain isolation produced strong Unionist sympathies, though not as deep as in neighboring Avery and Mitchell counties. Through the Solid South Democratic era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Watauga voted Republican in most presiden...

Image: Jeremy Mikkola from Boone, NC | CC BY 2.0

Watauga County, North Carolina: Christmas Trees and Kraut Creek

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Jan Kronsell assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. The county's mountain economy runs on a peculiar mix: Fraser fir Christmas trees, sold by the millions to lots across the eastern half of the country every November; a Watauga County Farmers' Market that has operated in Boone since 1974; and Beech Mountain Resort, one of the few ...

Image: No machine-readable author provided. Jan Kronsell assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Watauga County, North Carolina: Parks, Parkway, and Snake Mountain

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US National Park Service, Public domain. Public lands stitch the county together. The Blue Ridge Parkway threads through the southern edge. Julian Price Memorial Park and Moses H. Cone Memorial Park flank the parkway. Pisgah National Forest claims part of the western county. State parks include parts of Grandfather Moun...

Image: US National Park Service | Public domain