9 Quirky Little Towns In North Carolina
Woolly worm oracles. Wizard of Oz ruins. Wild mustangs. Coffee mugs covering a cabin. Those are just a few of the oddities you can find in North Carolina. You will not find them in big cities, though. Such spectacles stand out from small settlements that span the state. Whether traversing the northern mountains, western woods, or coastal islands, stop at little towns to see North Carolina's biggest oddities. Behold nine of the littlest and quirkiest cities in the state.
Banner Elk
Banner Elk is a banner town for quirkiness. Each October, its population swells to roughly 20,000 people and 1,000 invertebrates for the Annual Woolly Worm Festival, an even weirder Groundhog Day where woolly worms, AKA woolly bear caterpillars, are said to predict the weather. Instead of a shadow, the woolly worm's coloration supposedly determines winter severity. Brown means mild, black means harsh.
If the woolly bear is black, head north from Banner Elk for excellent skiing at Beech Mountain. While there, try to glimpse Land of Oz, a long-abandoned Wizard of Oz-themed park that sporadically reopens for special events, especially the on-again, off-again Autumn at Oz Festival. Stay tuned for announcements.
Rougemont
Atop Red Mountain in the remote town of Rougemont, Castle Mont Rouge looms like a forgotten fantasy realm. Like Banner Elk's Land of Oz, this backwoods oddity has oscillated between semi-open and abandoned for decades. Now leaning towards the latter, Castle Mont Rouge can still be seen from the road, but no closer—that is, until creator Robert Mihaly again permits visitors. Until then, appease yourself with glimpses of the castle before gorging on Rougemont's other oddities, notably the Boar's Nest - A Dukes of Hazzard Museum. Dedicated to the old TV show, it is open during warmer months.
Corolla
Corolla, North Carolina, is known less for its human residents than for its equine residents. This Outer Banks town boasts roughly 100 feral horses, dubbed the Banker Horses or the Corolla Wild Horses. They descend from domesticated Spanish horses brought to America centuries ago. You can see these majestic mustangs roaming the white-sand beaches in picturesque glory. Take home your own pictures with help from Corolla Wild Horse Tours or Wild Horse Adventure Tours. Then learn more about, and perhaps support, the horses at the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, which operates a museum and gift shop.
Hildebran
Few people have heard of Hildebran. Yet many millions have seen it depicted as District 12 in The Hunger Games. To be exact, the abandoned Henry River Mill Village, located one mile south of Hildebran, served as the destitute district. Tourists flock there to pretend to play in the Hunger Games and learn how this booming textile town went bust. If looking for more regional thrills, they can get spooked in neighboring Hickory at Lake Hickory Haunts, known as "the premier haunted attraction of the Carolinas." You can also spend the afternoon hacking through the surrounding wilderness until you find the Collettsville Cup House, a cabin covered in tens of thousands of coffee mugs that continues to grow with visitors' additions.
Brevard
Brevard is the county seat of Transylvania County. But instead of vampires, Brevard boasts mysterious white squirrels. No one truly knows how those bleached rodents came to dominate this small city (an overturned carnival truck is one theory). Still, residents honor them at May's White Squirrel Weekend and February's White Squirrel Day. The latter celebration turns a white squirrel into yet another non-groundhog forecaster. Besides off-colored, prescient squirrels, Brevard is known for waterfalls. Roughly 250 of the natural wonders, notably the 411-foot Upper Whitewater Falls, fill Transylvania County, AKA the "Land of Waterfalls."
Littleton
Littleton is a little town with one of the quirkiest attractions in the state. From a ramshackle building at 300 North Main Street, the Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum beckons tourists with a bevy of offbeat artifacts. They range from alleged Bigfoot casts to purported shrunken heads to supposedly haunted dolls. The museum is also something of a base camp for ghost and Bigfoot hunters. Inside town, they search for spirits around historic haunts, such as the Alston House and the Person's Ordinary. Outside town, teams of dedicated hunters try to track Squatch in Medoc Mountain State Park.
Mount Airy
In 1926, Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy. That might not mean much to you, but it means everything to Mount Airy. This small city is reminiscent of Mayberry, the fictional setting of the 1960s series The Andy Griffith Show. Fans of the show will recognize the Mayberry Courthouse, Wally's Service Station, and Floyd's Mayberry Barber Shop. They can cap off their tour of "Mayberry" at the Andy Griffith Museum, "home of the single largest collection of artifacts and memorabilia related to Andy Griffith," and Mayberry Days, a several-day festival of all things Andy Griffith.
Sylva
Sylva is a tiny town tangled in western NC's woods. Visitors can hike the Nantahala National Forest, climb the Plott Balsam Mountains, and take a scenic ride on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. Its Tuckasegee River Excursion passes the trainwreck set from The Fugitive, left behind for posterity. Though Sylva's wilderness is undoubtedly unique, its quirkiest attraction is downright domestic. On Route 23 sits the American Museum of the House Cat, which is dedicated to the "five-million-year" relationship between man and cat. Among its cat-ifacts is a hand-carved kitty carousel and a petrified feline pulled from a 16th-century English fireplace.
Beaufort
In 1718, Blackbeard ran his ship aground off North Carolina's coast. For nearly three centuries, Queen Anne's Revenge was lost to the sea. It was not until 1996 that the shipwreck was discovered in Beaufort Inlet near the town of Beaufort. There it still lies, though with a much lighter booty thanks to historians and scientists. Many of its artifacts are on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. After touring the museum, you can see the Queen Anne's Revenge Marker in Fort Macon State Park and dine at the Queen Anne's Revenge restaurant in Beaufort proper.
Quirky Attractions Abound in North Carolina
No matter where you stand in the state, North Carolina is north of normal. However, as must now be apparent, you should stick to little towns to see the most abnormal attractions. Between the Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk and the Banker Horses in Corolla and the Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum in Littleton and the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, which small-town NC oddity will you visit first?
