Almond, North Carolina

Wesser is an unincorporated community in Swain County, North Carolina, United States. Wesser is located along US 74, West of Almond and East of Hewitt. At one time, Wesser was a whistle stop for the Southern Railway on the Murphy Branch. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad stops here during excursions. The Nantahala Outdoor Center is located in the vicinity.

Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) is a commercial outdoor guide service and retail store located at 13077 Highway 19 West, Bryson City, NC 28713. It opened in 1972 when Payson, Aurelia Kennedy, and Horace Holden Sr. took over the old Tote 'N Tarry Motel. NOC is based in western North Carolina near Bryson City, near the Great Smoky Mountains on the Nantahala River. Nantahala National Forest surround the service. The Appalachian Trail crosses the Nantahala River on a bridge next to the outfitter.NOC operates whitewater rafting trips on eight Southeastern rivers: the Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Cheoah, French Broad, Nantahala, Nolichucky, Ocoee, and Pigeon. NOC offers trips down each of these rivers, with the goal of providing enjoyment and getting people outside. To further that enjoyment and protect these areas the NOC works with various organizations for conservation of these rivers and the surrounding land. They work closely with the Forest service on several of these rivers to help with conservation efforts, often being the first reporters of something happening in or around the river. NOC also teaches people to paddle in its canoe and kayak paddling school. They also offer mountain bike rentals, group programs, outdoor retail, restaurants, ropes courses, kayak touring, fly fishing and hiking. NOC lately offers tubing trips down the Chattahoochee River and ziplining at their home site in Bryson city. NOC offers a variety of outdoor education courses to the public. Apart from their different paddling classes that are offered they also offer wilderness medicine classes and swift water rescue classes. The wilderness medicine courses that are offered are wilderness first aid, wilderness first responder and wilderness EMT as well as wilderness survival course and a course for healthcare professionals that has wilderness components. All participants of their wilderness medicine classes can receive certification through SOLO Southeast, leaders in wilderness medicine training. From 2022, NOC started offering international trips with a wide variety of excursions to choose from at each location. Some of the locations include British columbia, Argentina, Iceland and Africa. They include a variety of trips to accommodate for different ages and experience levels. Many of the international trips venture to highly sought after places around the world. NOC international expeditions ventures to the ends of the earth from Mount Kilimanjaro to Machu Picchu to the Northern Lights in Iceland. Former NOC president John Burton (who, until recently, was an owner/operator of nearby Nantahala Village Resort) was a member of the original 1972 Olympic slalom team. His teammate Angus Morrison, currently a head guide for Nantahala River Guided Trips, was also on the Olympic team that year, as well as in 1976 and 1980. More recently, Olympians Lecky and Fritz Haller, Horace Holden Jr., Wayne Dickert (currently head of NOC Instruction), Joe Jacobi, Scott Strausbaugh and Scott Shipley have all trained with the Nantahala Racing Club at NOC on the Nantahala River. Bryson City native, Adam Clawson, a two-time U.S. Olympian and a 1991 World Championship silver medalist is widely recognized as one of the greatest C-1 slalom paddlers to ever race for the United States. Jacobi and Strausbaugh, paddling C-2, are the only Americans ever to have won an Olympic gold medal for the US in whitewater, which they did in Barcelona in 1992. NOC remains a training site for whitewater athletes in the US. Paddlers have come from all over to experience the Nantahala river and the NOC alike.

The Nantahala River () is a river in western North Carolina in the United States, within the Nantahala National Forest, and near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Two-lane U.S. Highway 19/74 runs along the river, picnic areas dotting the route. In 1839, this was an unimproved large path, part of what became known as the Trail of Tears as the Cherokee people were forcibly removed from their homelands in this region to west of the Mississippi River and Indian Territory. The river rises near the border of Georgia and North Carolina, close to the Southern Nantahala Wilderness and the Appalachian Trail. It flows into the Little Tennessee River at Fontana Lake, a reservoir formed behind Fontana Dam. The word Nantahala is Cherokee and means "Land of the Noonday Sun". The river runs through a narrow and steep gorge where in some areas the sun reaches the ground only when it is directly overhead during the middle of the day. During the colonial era, Cherokee towns along the Nantahala, upper Hiwassee River, and Valley River in what is now North Carolina were known as the Valley Towns.

Lauada is an unincorporated community in Swain County, North Carolina, United States. Lauada is located at the junction of U.S. Route 19, U.S. Route 74, and North Carolina Highway 28 5.1 miles (8.2 km) southwest of Bryson City. The SCC Swain Center, a satellite location of Southwestern Community College, is located here.

The Tuckasegee River (variant spellings include Tuckaseegee and Tuckaseigee) flows entirely within western North Carolina. It begins its course in Jackson County below Cullowhee at the confluence of Panthertown and Greenland creeks. It flows in a northwesterly direction into Swain County, where the Oconaluftee flows into it before the Tuckaseegee heads northwest. The county seat, Bryson City developed along both sides of the Tuckaseegee, and Bryson City Island Park was developed. The river next enters Fontana Lake, formed by the Fontana Dam upriver on the Little Tennessee River. The Tuckaseegee ultimately flows as a tributary into the Little Tennessee River below the lake. The name Tuckasegee may be an anglicization or transliteration of the Cherokee word daksiyi—[takhšiyi] in the local Cherokee variety, meaning 'Turtle Place.' Several Cherokee towns developed along the river, including Kituwa, believed to be the "mother town" of the Cherokee. It developed around an earthen platform mound, likely built about 1000 CE. The mound, although reduced in height, is visible on the 309 acres (1.25 km2) of land reacquired in 1996 by the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. This land also includes the former site of an early 18th-century Cherokee town. The EBCI conducted an archeological survey in 1997 that found evidence of thousands of years of habitation at this site and are keeping it undeveloped as sacred ground. Many of the mounds in this area were built by about 1000 CE, during the South Appalachian Mississippian culture era. In each of their major towns, the Cherokee built a townhouse as their expression of public architecture on top of such a mound, if it existed. The townhouse was the Cherokee expression of public architecture, emphasizing their decentralized society based on community consensus. In some places, they built a townhouse on the main town plaza. The river also has several stone fishing weirs built by prehistoric indigenous peoples. It is believed that the weirs were built by peoples who lived here prior to the Cherokee in the Southeast. The weirs are most easily viewed when water levels are low. One near Webster, North Carolina, is the most intact and has a characteristic "V" shape. Fishing, hiking, and paddling are among the recreational opportunities along the river.

Wesser Bald is a summit located in Macon County, North Carolina, near the community of Wesser. A wooden fire tower at the summit provides hikers with unimpeded views of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and also the Nantahala Mountains. The Appalachian Trail traverses the summit from roughly north to south with the Nantahala Outdoor Center lying to the north within the Nantahala Gorge and Tellico gap just to the south. Tellico gap has unimproved road access. The climb from Tellico Gap takes an average of 20 minutes. Also, a third route, the blue trail, departs from the end of Wesser Creek Road and follows Wesser Creek up to a point just south of the summit to a fork with the Appalachian Trail. The summit is located at 4,627 ft (1,410 m). and is within Nantahala National Forest. A map detailing the highway routes to access Tellico Gap is available at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Observable landforms include Wayah Bald, the Nantahala Gorge, and Clingmans Dome among others. The Wesser Fire Tower provides 360 degree views of the Smokies in a short 1.5 mile hike from Tellico Gap on the Appalachian Trail, with an elevation gain of about 767 feet. The Fire Tower was originally reported as destroyed during the forest fires which ravaged the Nantahala Forest in November, 2016 but it was later learned that it survived.

Hewitt is an unincorporated community in Swain County, North Carolina, United States. Hewitt is located along US 74, West of Bryson City and East of Topton. A talc and limestone mine is located in Hewitt.

Nantahala Township () is located in North Carolina, United States in the part of Macon County which is west of Wayah Gap. It has a population of 1,711. "Nantahala" is a Cherokee word which means "The sun between them". The Cherokee are credited for finding this region in North Carolina. They called their "town" Aquone. This area is now covered with water and known as Nantahala Lake. There is plenty of evidence to prove that other people lived in this area long before the Cherokee were here. There are many Indian villages in the Aquone area, and other similar evidence of other villages throughout the entire Nantahala community. The town of Aquone vanished and was rediscovered by a Spanish Conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1540 and then again by William Bartram in the 18th century.Nantahala receives a majority of its revenue from tourism.

Bryson City is a town in and the county seat of Swain County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,558 as of the 2020 census. Located in what was historically the land of the Cherokee, Bryson City was founded as Charleston to serve as the county seat of Swain County when it was formed from parts of surrounding counties. It grew into an important local rail hub. Today the city serves as a popular tourist destination, lying just to the west of the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for outdoor activities in the Nantahala National Forest, and along the Nantahala River and Fontana Lake, and serves as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, a heritage railroad that provides tours of the Nantahala valley. The popular Nantahala Outdoor Center provides guide services for many of the outdoor activities in the area.

The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (reporting mark GSMR) is a heritage and freight railroad based in Bryson City, North Carolina, United States. Originally formed in 1988, it was currently owned and operated by American Heritage Railways since late 1999. The GSMR operates excursion trains on the former Southern Railway's Murphy Branch between Dillsboro and Nantahala, North Carolina. The GSMR is one of the most popular tourist railroads in the United States, carrying 200,000 passengers each year.

The Bryson City Depot is a train station located in Bryson City, North Carolina, United States. It serves as the only active station along the Murphy Branch, a rail line that traverses from Asheville to Murphy in Western North Carolina. Owned and operated by the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, it serves as both the begin and end point of various scenic excursion trains.

The Swain County Courthouse is a historic courthouse located at Main and Fry Streets in Bryson City, the county seat of Swain County, North Carolina. The two-story Classical Revival structure was designed by Frank Pierce Milburn and R. S. Smith, and built in 1908. It has a central core block, which is fronted by a Classical tetrastyle portico with Ionic columns and has a hip roof. This block is flanked by symmetrical wings, except for the southern facade, where a secondary entrance is flanked by Ionic pilasters. It is the county's third courthouse; the first was a log structure built in 1872, and the second was built in 1880 after the first burned down.The courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The building is now used as the Swain County Heritage Museum.