Balsam Mountain Inn

Balsam is an unincorporated community in Jackson County, North Carolina, United States. Named after the Balsam Mountains, it is home of the highest standard-gauge railroad east of the Rocky Mountains, at 3,315 feet (1,010 m). The community is located near Balsam Gap, a mountain pass between the Great Balsam Mountains and the Plott Balsams, two of the highest ranges in the Appalachian Mountains. The town and ranges are named after the nicknames of the red spruce and Fraser fir ("he-balsam" and "she-balsam," respectively), which are the dominant tree types at the highest elevations in the Southern Appalachian mountains.

Balsam Gap (el. 3,316 ft (1,011 m)) is a mountain pass between the Plott Balsam Range to the northwest and the Great Balsam Mountains to the southeast on the county line dividing Haywood and Jackson counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The gap allows both the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway and the former Murphy Branch of the Southern Railway, now owned by Blue Ridge Southern Railroad, to cross between the two counties running east–west. The Blue Ridge Parkway also runs through the gap in a north–south direction crossing both the expressway and railway branch. The gap is named for the Great Balsam Mountains in which it lies. The small, unincorporated communities of Balsam in Jackson County and Saunook in Haywood County are also located close by.

Willets is an unincorporated community in Jackson County, North Carolina, United States. Willets is located along U.S. Route 74, west of Balsam and east of Sylva. It is home to the Balsam-Willets-Ochre Hill fire department, a church, and many homes. It was a thriving unincorporated town along the Murphy Branch of the Western North Carolina Railroad, but seriously declined during the Great Depression in the 1930s, consolidations of the schools in the Scott Creek Township in 1951, and the widening/straightening of US 23 in the early 1950s and early 1970s. Today it is a tiny bedroom community for the larger population centers of Waynesville and Sylva.

Saunook is an unincorporated community in Haywood County, North Carolina, United States. Saunook is located along US 74, west of Waynesville and east of Balsam.

Mount Hardison is a mountain in the eastern Great Smoky Mountains, located in the southeastern United States. At 6,145 feet (1,873 m) above sea level, Hardison is the thirteenth-highest in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mount Hardison is named for James Archibald Hardison, an original member of the North Carolina State Park Commission.

Waterrock Knob is a mountain peak in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the highest peak in the Plott Balsams and is the 16th-highest mountain in the Eastern United States. The mountain is a popular destination with tourists and amateur hikers, as it is easily accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway. A visitors' center is located near its summit and a hiking trail leads to its top. The hiking trail and visitors' center are staffed and maintained by the National Park Service, part of the United States Department of the Interior.

The Plott Balsams are a mountain range in western North Carolina in the southeastern United States.

Addie is an unincorporated community in Jackson County, North Carolina, United States. Addie is located along U.S. Route 74, west of Willets-Ochre Hill and east of Sylva. The Jackson County School of Alternatives (the HUB) and Scotts Creek Elementary School are located here. T&S Hardwoods operates a lumber yard here, adjacent to the railroad that runs through the area. The community was named for Nancy Adelaide Calhoun, the daughter of John Philemon Calhoun, who was the postmaster.

The Jackson Community School is an alternative school in Jackson County, North Carolina for grades K–12 which serves students who need a smaller setting to access scholastic success. It seeks to serve all students with individualized attention built on trauma informed practices and seeks to prepare all graduates for employment, enrollment, or enlistment. It opened in the old Scotts Creek School, built in 1951, in 2002 after the new Scotts Creek Elementary School opened in 2001. The building received several renovations when it was converted into the HUB. It is the oldest school building still in use as a school in the county. It is located on old US 19/23 in the Addie Community and the campus borders Scotts Creek. When it opened it was a state-of-the-art facility, and didn't require blinds because the building was positioned at such an angle that the sun would always be overhead and would never directly shine into the classrooms windows. The building has two floors on the backside and one floor on the front. A small addition was added to the middle section of the school in the 1970s or 1980s. The Gym/Auditorium is small by modern standards, as the sideline was the wall. The new school that replaced Scotts Creek has a separate Gym and Auditorium, both of which are relatively large when compared to the old Gym/Auditorium. The school is the smallest school in the district and it is also one of the most recently established.

Eaglenest Mountain (also known as Eagles Nest Mountain) is a mountain located 2 miles south of Maggie Valley, North Carolina in Haywood County. It is part of the Plott Balsams, a range of the Appalachian Mountains, and less than a mile south of North Eaglenest Mountain, a higher mountain which used to be called Mount Junaluska and is the highest mountain overlooking Lake Junaluska from the southwest. The closest town that is accessible by road is Hazelwood. Hazelwood was absorbed into the larger incorporated Town of Waynesville in 1995. In 1900, S. C. Satterthwaite of Waynesville, North Carolina, which was 5 miles away, built the Eagle Nest Hotel at an elevation of 5050 feet. The location was a mountain range he called The Junaluskas, on a peak called Mount Junaluska, since named North Eaglenest Mountain. The hotel was destroyed by a fire of undetermined origin on April 22, 1918.

North Eaglenest Mountain is a mountain located less than 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Maggie Valley, North Carolina, US, in Haywood County. It is part of the Plott Balsams, a range of the Appalachian Mountains, and less than a mile north of Eaglenest Mountain. It used to be called Mount Junaluska and is the highest mountain overlooking Lake Junaluska from the west. In 1900, S. C. Satterthwait of Waynesville, North Carolina, which was 5 miles (8.0 km) away, built the Eagle Nest Hotel at an elevation of 5,050 feet (1,540 m). The location was a mountain range he called The Junaluskas, on a peak called Mount Junaluska. The hotel was one of the two hay fever resorts in western North Carolina, the other being Cloudland on Roan Mountain, and it had room for 100 guests (although tents could be used if the hotel filled up) and a view of Plott Balsam. "[A] good wagon road" reached the top of the mountain. The hotel was destroyed by a fire of undetermined origin on April 22, 1918. There was talk of rebuilding but it never happened. A road that was built in 1898, some say by Cherokee, was not used by cars for 20 years. In 1937, H.G. Stone and H.L. Liner took over the road, improved it and began charging tolls to "Scenic Eagle’s Nest Road". This lasted only until 1941. Houses were built on the former Satterwait Estate, and Steve and Sue Foreman have a house where the hotel once stood.

Soco Gap (el. 4,340 ft (1,320 m)) is a mountain pass between the Plott Balsams to the south and the Great Balsam Mountains to the north. The gap is the eastern point of the Qualla Boundary, which marks the territory held as a land trust for the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The gap separates Haywood and Jackson counties and separates the river basins to the French Broad River and the Little Tennessee River. In Cherokee, the pass is known as Ahalunun'yi (ᎠᎭᎷᏄn'Ᏹ), meaning "Ambush Place" or Uni'halu'na (ᎤᏂ'ᎭᎷ'Ꮎ), meaning "where they ambushed;" named after the occasion, probably in the mid-18th century, when the Cherokees ambushed a party of invading Shawnees, all of which were killed except for one, who was sent back (without his ears) to tell his people of the Cherokee victory. U.S. Route 19 (Soco Road) traverses through the gap, which connects Cherokee and Maggie Valley. The Blue Ridge Parkway also passes through the gap, providing scenic views along the adjacent ridge lines.