Dillsboro: Born at the Railhead

Dillsboro exists because of a railroad and a man who owned the land it came to cover. The Western North Carolina Railroad reached this valley in eighteen eighty-two, and the depot stop was initially called simply Depot, or sometimes Webster Station. The postmaster was William Allen Dills, who owned much of the surrounding land.

When railroad developer A.B. Andrews suggested naming the stop in his honor, the name Dillsboro stuck.

The town was incorporated in eighteen eighty-nine and grew quickly, becoming a busy railroad town by the turn of the century. Tourism arrived with the railroad, and today it remains the departure point for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad excursion trains that run through the gorges and tunnels of the Tuckasegee corridor.