Swain County Courthouse

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 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 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.

Nantahala Brewing Company is a craft brewery located in Bryson City, North Carolina. The brewery was founded in 2009 by Chris Collier, Joe Rowland and Ken Smith. It's located at 61 Depot Street, Bryson City, North Carolina, across the street from the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad train depot. September 2023 - Nantahala Brewing Company is closed

The Bryson City Island Park is a small island located in Bryson City, North Carolina, United States. Located within the Tuckasegee River, at the mouth of historic Deep Creek, which flows from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Frye-Randolph House and Fryemont Inn are a pair of historic properties on Fryemont Road in Bryson City, North Carolina. The two buildings occupy a prominent site overlooking the Tuckasegee River and Bryson City, and are well-known local landmarks. The house is an L-shaped wood-frame structure, whose oldest portion was built c. 1895 by Amos Frye, a prominent local lawyer and landowner. The inn is a rustic mountain lodge, two stories high, part of which is clad in bark shingles. It was built by the Fryes in 1923, and is a well-preserved example of a period vacation hotel.The properties, now under separate ownership, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The inn is still in operation.

Swain County High School is a public high school located in Bryson City, North Carolina. Swain County High School is a part of the Swain County School System. It is the only 9–12 high school in the county. It serves all areas of the county except for portions in the Eastern Cherokee Reservation, which are served by Cherokee Central Schools.

Kituwa (also spelled Kituwah, Keetoowah, Kittowa, Kitara and other similar variations) or giduwa (Cherokee:ᎩᏚᏩ) is an ancient Native American settlement near the upper Tuckasegee River, and is claimed by the Cherokee people as their original town. An earthwork platform mound, built about 1000 CE, marks a ceremonial site here. The historic Cherokee built a townhouse on top that was used for their communal gatherings and decisionmaking; they replaced it repeatedly over decades. They identify Kituwa as one of the "seven mother towns" in their traditional homeland of the American Southeast. This site is in modern Swain County, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains. The Cherokee lost control of this site to the United States in the early 19th century. In the late 1830s, most of their people in the Southeast were forcibly removed by US forces to Indian Territory. Descendants of those who remained in North Carolina formed the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), which is federally recognized. Kituwa (31Sw2) was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 because of its historic and archeological significance. In 1996 the EBCI purchased 309 acres of land, including Kituwa mound and the former town site. They have conducted archeological surveys that have added to their knowledge about the long history of the site and Cherokee uses, including burials there. As a result, they have decided to leave this sacred site undeveloped. Since the mid-19th century, the term "Keetoowah" has been associated with Cherokee people, initially full-blood only, who supported a kind of religious nationalism. They adhered to pre-contact communal ways. Conservative descendants of Cherokee who had migrated to Arkansas and Indian Territory in the 1810s and 1820s later formed what is now the federally recognized tribe of the United Keetoowah Band, based in Oklahoma. During the 19th century, after removal to Indian Territory, there were Cherokee groups who identified as Keetoowah, at times forming secret societies that maintained rituals and sacred ceremonies.

The Abel Hyatt House is a historic house in rural Swain County, North Carolina. It is located about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Bryson City, 300 yards (270 m) east of Highway 74, on the banks of the Tuckasegee River. The two-story brick I-house was built in 1880 by Abel Hyatt, a farmer, and is the only known 19th-century masonry house in the county. It is a fine example of vernacular Greek Revival style.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Ela is an unincorporated community in Swain County, North Carolina, United States, located along US 19, northwest of Whittier and east of Bryson City. The name is derived from ᎡᎳᏬᏗ (Elawodi) in the Cherokee language, which translates as "yellow hill." Ela was once the junction of the Appalachian Railway (1906-1935) and Southern Railway's Murphy Branch.

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.