Elk Park: The Almost County Seat at the End of the Line
Near Banner Elk, North Carolina
Elk Park takes its name from the elk herds that once filled the Elk River Valley before hunters cleared them out in the eighteen hundreds. The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad arrived in eighteen eighty-two, connecting the valley to Johnson City, Tennessee, and the stop at Elk Park put the community on the map.
When Avery County was carved out of the surrounding mountains in nineteen eleven as North Carolina's one hundredth and final county, Elk Park was chosen as its first county seat. But Lieutenant Governor William Calhoun Newland reportedly struck a deal: he would support the new county if the permanent seat bore his name. The seat moved to the newly platted town of Newland, and Elk Park served only as a temporary capital while the courthouse was built. The railroad was decommissioned in nineteen fifty, and much of the bustle left with it. What remained was a small town where the antique shops and quiet storefronts still carry the memory of a moment when Elk Park almost became the center of things.
