Penland School of Craft

Henry Willis House, also known as Ehle House, is a historic home located near Penland, Mitchell County, North Carolina. It was built about 1880, and enlarged about 1890. It is a double-pen log house, with a weatherboarded log ell added after the turn of the 20th century. It was enlarged again about 1930 and in the 1980s. Also on the property is a contributing privy. It is one of the three traditional log homesteads in Mitchell County.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Penland Post Office and General Store, also known as Bailey Lumber Company Office Building and Bailey Lumber Company Office and General Merchandise Store, is a historic post office and general store located at Penland, Mitchell County, North Carolina. It was built about 1900, and is a long, one-story, frame building with a front-gable roof and rough-sawn board and batten siding. The building housed the office and store of the Bailey Lumber Company from about 1900 to 1916, and a general store from about 1902 to 1974. It has housed the Penland post office since 1934 and is the oldest active post office facility in Mitchell County and is the county's last remaining Fourth Class post office.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

Penland is an unincorporated community in the Snow Creek Township of Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. Penland is 2.9 miles (4.7 km) west-northwest of Spruce Pine. Approximately 200 year-round residents live in the community, the center of which is the Penland Road bridge crossing the North Toe River and CSX railroad line. The community is located on the northern edge of western North Carolina's Black Mountains and is bisected by the North Toe River, a tributary of the Cane and Nolichucky rivers. The Penland Post Office and General Store with ZIP code 28765, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to its significance as the longest continuously operating post office in the area. Also listed in the National Register of Historic Places are the Penland School Historic District Conley Ridge Cemetery and Beacon Church and the Henry Willis House.The community is named for Robert Penland, a wealthy local businessman who in the 1850s operated an inn for travelers. Penland School of Crafts, established in the early 1920s, is the largest and oldest professional crafts school in the United States. The school offers courses in all of the major craft media and many fine arts fields, bringing thousands of students and prominent instructors together every year. Nine of North Carolina's seventeen Living Treasures live within a five-mile radius of Penland. Conley Ridge Cemetery and Beacon Church are in a Historic District and on the National Register of Historic Places. Beacon Church is recognized for its architecture and Conley Ridge Cemetery for its association with 19th Century families significant to the Penland Community and to the development of schools in the area, including Penland School.

Mitchell High School is a small high school in western North Carolina located in Mitchell County, North Carolina. Their mascot is the Mountaineers, and the school colors are purple and white.

Estatoe is an unincorporated community in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. It is located where Brushy Creek crosses U.S. Route 19E (US 19E), west of Spruce Pine.

Boonford is a ghost town in Yancey County, North Carolina, and Mitchell County, North Carolina, located near present-day North Carolina Highway 80.

The South Toe River is a river in Yancey County in Western North Carolina. The name Toe is taken from its original name Estatoe, pronounced 'S - ta - toe', a native American name associated with the Estatoe trade route leading down from the NC mountains through Brevard where there is a historical plaque with information that affirms the route, on into South Carolina where a village of the same name was located.The stream headwaters originate in the ravine between the eastern side of the Black Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Eastern Continental Divide at 35°42′39″N 82°15′01″W. It flows northward, alongside North Carolina Highway 80, until it merges with the North Toe River at about 2333 feet above sea level at 35°56′36″N 82°11′10″W. At the confluence the far bank (northeast) of the North Toe lies within Mitchell County and the community of Kona lies on the east bank of the North Toe less than one-half mile to the northwest. The water continues to the Nolichucky River, Tennessee River, Ohio River, and Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. The NC Wildlife Resources Commission stocks much of the river with trout for fishing, but the headwaters is designated as wild trout waters. The river is also home to a population of the Appalachian elktoe, an endangered species of freshwater mussel.Tributaries from the west side include Hemphill Creek, Right Prong South Toe River, Left Prong South Toe River, South Fork Upper Creek, Middle Fork Upper Creek, Grassy Knob Branch, Lower Creek, Camp Creek, Setrock Creek, Little Mountain Creek, Laurel Branch, Middle Creek, Rock Creek, Colbert Creek, Locust Creek, Oak Forest Creek, White Oak Creek, and Brown's Creek. Tributaries coming from the east side include, Still Fork Creek, Clear Creek, Little White Oak Creek, Hannah Branch, Bobs Creek, Phips Branch, Murphy Branch.

Kona is an unincorporated community in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. The community is located along North Carolina Highway 80 (NC 80), near the confluence of the North and South Toe Rivers and at the western slope of Ellis Mountain.

Spruce Pine is the largest town in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,175 at the 2010 census.

Downtown Spruce Pine Historic District is a national historic district located at Spruce Pine, Mitchell County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 33 contributing buildings in the central business district of Spruce Pine. It was developed between 1909 and 1953, and includes notable examples of Early Commercial and Tudor Revival style architecture. Located in the district is the separately listed Gunter Building. Other notable buildings include the Spruce Pine Depot (1909), Crystal Place (1937), (former) Town Hall (1940), and Day's Drug Store (1950).It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Woody's Knob (Charlie Woody Mountain), at an elevation of 4,170 feet, is a summit or "knob" in the Blue Ridge Mountains and one of the highest points in the unincorporated village of Little Switzerland and in Mitchell County, North Carolina.

Gunter Building is a historic commercial building located at Spruce Pine in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. It was built about 1941, and is a two-story, three bay by four bay, building constructed of river-tumbled micaceous biotite. It was built by local stonemasons Charlie Mitchell and Dave Greene for the Belk-Broome Company.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It is located in the Downtown Spruce Pine Historic District.